Women in Black Italy

Appeal by the Italian network of women in black for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

2011-03-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Italy is at war

There is no combat in our territory, but the mechanisms of war are in action with all that implies: rising military spending, militarisation of territory and of minds.

The involvement of Italy in the military intervention in Afghanistan started and the end of 2001 when Italy joined the ISAF mission to provide “security support” and sent 350 military personnel.

It was supposed to last “at least six months” and cost “a few tens of billion lire”.

And now, it's almost 10 years later

The “peacekeeping “ mission has become a war, and leadership has passed from the UN to NATO in 2003 . We moved from light weapons to assault weapons, from light rules of engagements to ever more aggressive rules, from 350 soldiers to 1000 in 2003, 3900 in 2010 and 4200 now.

Since the start of the mission, the cost has been 3 billion 100 million Euro, and costs continue to be 65 million Euro a month.

The refinancing of the military intervention happens every six months with bipartisan support (with a few exceptions), in violation of article 11 of the Constitution, without ever discussing the objectives gained in Parliament. The same happened again in February.

410 million Euro (2.26 million a day) has been budgeted for the Afghanistan mission for the first six months of 2011, while the budget for reconstruction and assistance gets ever tinier (just 16 million for the six month period).

While we are facing ferocious cuts in education, culture, research, health, local government, and the environment, we see that the arms sector and military spending are not suffering any reduction - contrary to what is happening in other European countries.

Since 2006 there has been a 28% rise in military spending in Italy, and this is set to rise by a further 8.4% in 2011. To this we must add money assigned to the Ministry of Development, which have been improperly used to fund new arms systems, and a sum of 1.5 billion Euro for military missions abroad.

The total is therefore 24.3 billion Euro. Among the projects being funded is the purchase of 131 F35 fighterbombers at the cost of 16 billion Euro and of ten frigates at teh cost of 5.6 billion Euro.

The war in Afghanistan fits into the NATO strategic concept, defined at the Lisbon summit 20th November 2010, while consists of bringing in more and more countries and in intervening wherever their interests are "threatened", exercising a form of world dominion and representing a continual threat to peace.

We women in black have always been against the war, and so also against the military intervention in Afghanistan.

In the light of the current situation, we state that all declared objectives have failed; the fight against terrorism, bringing democracy and security, liberating Afghan women.

In reality, the Taleban have retaken control of two thirds of the country. Karzai was reelected fraudulently, the conflict has spread to Pakistan, warlords and druglords are in control, almost 80% of the population is living in poverty, the production of opium has increased to a point where it represents 93% of world production, corruption is widepread, the lives of women have worsened to the point that suicides have increased to unprecedented levels ( women between 18 and 35 set fire to themselves to escape the intollerable violence of their fate).

The Karzai government has reintroduced the “Ministry of Vice and Virtue” and has enacted a law according to which Shiite women cannot refuse sexual relations with their husbands, cannot go to school, cannot go to the doctor or to work without being accompanied by a male relative.

Now they are promulgating a law that brings refuges for mistreated women - up to now run by Afghan NGOs) under direct government control. To go to a refuge, women will have to be accompanied by a male relative and be handed over to the family on request.

If such political deals involving the bodies and lives of women are still happening, it is also the responsibility of the "liberators" among them Italy, which from the start took on the task of rebuilding the Afghan justice system. If this is the result, we must question the millions invested.

We, women in black, during these years have formed relationships with Afghan women's associations (RAWA, HAWCA, OPAWC) who have been a valuable source of testimony and who have made known to us the couragious capacity for unarmed resistance of the women and the Afghan population as a whole.

These women and the many different voices of civil society make up the democratic, nonviolent resistance of the Afghan people and they ask for our support in bringing the military occupation to an end, which would mean for them, as a first step, an end to aerial bombardment - the principle (though by no means the only) cause of the deaths of over 40,000 civilians since the war started.

There is no peace without justice.

We call for the trial of all the war criminals and war lors who are currently present in the Afghan government.

We call on all who identify themselves as feminists or pacifists to join us in identifying practices, instruments, and forms of opposition to bring about the withrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Do not allow Afghanistan to become yet another NATO military base

Support the democratic forces, starting with the women.

Support the reconstruction of the country outside the logic of militarisation.

"Humanitarian" military intervention by governments involved in arms sales

2011-03-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks we have watched the rising violence in Libyia with anguish: unarmed civilians killed and injured with weapons sold by our country, and with growing unease we have once more heard the arguments for a "humanitarian war". Now there's a UN resolution that authorises the use of military force, including "all necessary measure". The Wall Street Journal quotes Pentagon officials who speak of using Cruise missiles. We know only too well the price that will be paid in "collateral damage" for this type of strategy.

We reject any military intervention by NATO or any country which has the pretext of of resolving this conflict by military force.

We maintain that states and organisations that have up to now supported interventions against civilian populations, as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Chechnia, etc or who have trafficked in arms and negotiated with dictators do not have the moral authority to act as "saviours" in the Libyan conflict. We consider these countries jointly responsible for the crimes against civil society.

The wave of civil resistance that has mobilised the Mediterranean basin from Maghreb to Machrek is sending the world a message that goes beyond a protest against dictatorial regimes supported up to now by the western world. Now they are shouting "We've had enough of hypocrisy and interventions for economic and strategic interests!"

For this reason the Women in Black call on the European governments and our own government to change their policy to peace, a policy of peace that no army should be sent to defend. We call for a policy that brings social justice and democracy and that is free from the pressure of other governments and multinationals. It should include the sovereignty of the pople and Esso dovrebbe includere anche la sovranità del popolo and avoid any discrimination against any woman or man in the society. It means a policy of peace without weapons.

Only the women and men of Libya should play the leading role in determining their present and future. It is they who must decide if mediators are needed to end the conflict.

We know from experience that only aid without intervention can be useful. For this reason, we invite all governments, implicated in in the sale of arms to Ghaddafi, Ben Ali and Mubarak to immediately send humanitarian aid to all refuges who are now fleeing Libya, when it is asked for by the population.

Last but not least, we ask that our mass media should show full respect and transparency when dealing with the complex reality of the civil resistance movement and the situation of the civilian population. We ask them to avoid the tendency to present news from the militaristic standpoint and from the standpoint of western interests.

Violence generates more violence. Let's avoid a military intervention that could generate more violence!

No Act of Resistance Should Kill Children

2011-03-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

We add our voices to this statement released by Luisa Morgantini, spokesperson for the Association for Peace.

We strongly condemn the murder of a family of settlers in the settlement of Itamar, close to Nablus.

No act of resistance can justify the killing of children. Not only because it is illegal, but because it is not human.

This action can only result in more violence and will certainly not bring the freedom to which the Palestian people have a right.

Israel has responded to this criminal act, sealing off the city of Nablus, once again using a reprisal and the collective punishment of an entire population - a population that already lives under a brutal military occupation that impedes freedom of movement, confiscates land, demolishes homes, uproots trees, holds the population of Gaza under siege, represses the non-violent popular resistance and supports the settlers who attack Palestinian civilians including children, like those of At Tuwani, on a daily basis.

The Israeli authorities are trying to place the responsiblity for the action on the Palestinian Authority, but the responsiblity of this criminal act belongs to those people who committed it.

This is the poisined fruit of the Israeli policy of colonisation and of the complicity of the international community which has failed to prevent Israel from continually violating international law and human rights.

We declare our condolences for the death of the Israeli children, our solidarity with the Palestinians affected by the Israeli reprisals, and our commitment to continue in the non-violent struggle together with the Popular Committees who have also condemned the attack on Itamar and restated their choice of non-violent resistance to the wall and the Israeli military occupation - a struggle that they are carrying forward together with Israelis who refuse the colonial policy of their government and with internationals who show their own governments the road of affermation of rights and of international law.

In the popular committes, we commit ourselves to non-violence and civil disobedience in our struggle to put an end to the Israeli occupation. Even though the crime was committed on colonised land, we see the killing of children as a disgraceful crime, whatever their nationality, sex, colour, race or religion.

Taking back our indecorous, free lives

2011-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of our minds

On February 13th, we women made a stand against the policies that are stifling our lives and that have brought about a progressive restriction of our rights and our freedom. We made our way through Piazza del Popolo, invaded the streets of Rome and pushed through to Montecitorio to "return to sender" the antiwomen lawas that have been passed in recent years by both centre-right and centre-left governments: undated resignation letters that new employees can be forced to sign, the law on assisted procreation, the raising of the pensionable age, the security package, and many others

On March 8th, we returned to the streets with the same message of placing at the centre of discussion the restribution of wealth among thouse who make profits and those who are paying for this crisis, among those who own real estate and those who have no home, between those who are paid millions and those who have no job.

We want to answer those who are trying to take away our autonomy filling public structions with "conscientious objectors" limiting the distribution of the moring after pill or supporting the privatisation of health care structures such as family planning clinics (see the proposed Tarzia law for the Lazio region) , structures which we would like to reform to meet our present needs.

We want to rebel against a culture that is used to control our bodies and our sexuality. From work to health, in fact, the only legitimate role for women is seen as that of wife and mother - though women are often forced to sign an open-dated resignation letter when they enter employment so that this can be used if they become pregnant.

We are living in a country of double standards, where the only model to be accepted and promoted is the heterosexual family, that very family in which, according to official statistics, most acts of violence against women are committed by husbands, partners and fathers. This is another reason to reject a precarious labour model - because it forces us to depend economically and culturally on a model of relationships that prevents us from choosing where, how, when and with whom to become or NOT to become mothers.

The same family-centred rhetoric that promotes and supports parenthood puts obstacles in the way of lesbians, single people, gays, transsexuals and all those who don't fit into the heterosexual, Catholic model.

It's the very same logic that on one hand stigmatises and criminalises sex workers, using the security package and moralistic campaigns and on the other promotes the use and imagery of women's bodies for male pleasure within the circles of power and elsewhere.

On March 8th we also took to the streets to unmask the racist policies of this government that takes advantage of the work of care providers, for the most part immigrant women and at the same time transforms them in "dangerous" protagonists of the "immigration emergency" or deprives them of their libery and makes them victims of violence within the centres for immigration and expulsion (CIE).

For all these reasons we were on the streets on March 8th, to make a stand for rights and freedom, because our desires don't have family or nation. We are not "decent Italians". We are casual workers, students, lesbians, trans. We are women who refuse the model of family-based, nationalist, Catholic, heterosexual welfare-

We want to reclaim our own voices and our own bodies, the streets, the night, our relationships. We demand rights, welfare, and autonomy..

For Freedom and Justice. Against Repression and the Death Penalty

2011-03-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

For more than a month, we have been hearing news of uprising, multiplying and extending from Tunisia to Egypt, from Algeria to Yemen, from Libya to Bahrein. What we're seeing are enormous popular demonstrations againsgt despotic and corrupt regimes. Women and men, young and old are calling for bread and freedom, dignity and justice, social equality and democratic participation. .

As Women in Black against war, we feel the drama of the bloody repression that is causing hundreds of victims in these countries. Violent powers are waging a war against unarmed people.

The Iranian people, too, after thirty years of difficult life under the repression of the theocratic islamic government, are calling for democracy with the pacific action of the Green Movement. The response of the government has been bullets, prison, torture, and death sentences.

The recent terrible increase in death sentences and the establishment of unfair tribunals are, every day, causing the death of innumerable political prisoners. Based on reports coming out of Iran, from 1st to the 27th January 2011 106 executions have been carried out, that is, an average of 20 executions a week. Many more are awaiting execution.

For many months, a group of courageous mothers have been protesting, calling for the abolition of the death sentence, the freeing of political prisoners, punishment of those responsible for crimes committed in the last 31 years. The mothers meet every week in Laleh Park, in Teheran. (http://www.madaraneparklale.org/p/about-us.html). They are mothers in mourning - mothers of the martyrs of the last 32 years. They refuse to close their eyes to the loss of their children and demand the punishment of those who ordered and those who carried out mass executions, executions of individuals, torture and attacks on student residences since the 80s. In response, the regime has set its sights on them, detaining and arresting women to stifle their demands for justice.

The Italian network of Women in Black has known and supported this struggle for some time. On February 25, together with Amnesty International, we particpated in a press conference held at the International Women's House in Rome with Luisa Morgantini, Sabri Najafi and Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel peace prize laureate - women how have always fought for human rights despite the risks that this brings.

Together with the Mothers of Laleh Park, we call for:

The freeing of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
An end to the executions which in January and the first weeks of February alone have taken the lives of more than 100 people.
The abolition of the death sentence.

We support the non-violent struggle of the mothers of Laleh Park and of the Iranian civil society. We will give voice to these women and make known their situation and their courage which is completely ignored by the media

Stop the Colonial Train

2011-02-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Women in Black, Italy support the international campaign against the building of a high speed train that will link Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in which the Italian firm , Pizzarotti, is involved.

A report produced by the Israeli coalition of women for peace, as part of their research projectt Who profits?, shows that the train's route passes through the occupied territory and involves further losses of land for the Palestinian communities - who won't even be able to use the train. The construction in which Pizzarotti is taking part is illegal since international law prohibits the use of resources from an occupied territory by the occupying power for the benefit of its own citizens.

The choice of building in the occupied territory wasn't even necessary to the project. According to Dalit Baum, researcher with the Coalition of Women for Peace:

it is significant, even though not surprising to discover that Israeli planners found it easier to take land from the Palestinians and run the risk of being prosecuted for violations of international law rather than face the possible complaints of Israeli citizens who might object to the building of the train line close to their houses and the consequent devaluation of their real estate or the worsening of the air quality and the view from their windows. It seems that the internationally recognised borders of Israel are totally insignificant in the eyes of Israeli engineers and that they can cross them whenever it is more convenient or easier for their projects.

Alarm for Afghan Women: The Kabul government threatens to take control of women's refuges

2011-02-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

The Italian coordination in support of Afghan women (CISDA) condemns the law promoted by the Afghan Council of Ministers in January 2011 according to which, within 45 days of the law being passed, management of women's refuges will be controlled by the Ministry of Women's Affairs, rather than the Afghan NGOs.

The decree is based on a previous decision of the Afghan Supreme Court - the most reactionary legislative body in the country - that defined it a Crime for a woman to leave her home and seek shelter in one of the refuges for abused women run by the NGOs.

The decision of the Afghan Supreme Court already restricted the possibilities for women victims of violence to appeal to judicial bodies.

Moreover, the law requires the closure of some refuges, the accompaniment of women by a mahram (male relative or husband), the teaching of Islan and the obligation of women to submit to continual "medical examinations" in order to monitor their sexual activity. The government affirms that management by the MoWA will guarantee a better administration of funds and a better choice of staff.

We maintain that this measure has been taken to satisfy fundamentalists and the Taliban, whith whom negotiations have been started. The refuges have been labelled by some as brothels and the choice has been made to bring them under control.

The consequences of this will be disastrous for the women victims of violence. :

No male relative - and much less a husband - will accompany a woman to a refuge: in most cases, it is they who are the perpetrators of the violence from which the women want to escape.
In Afghanistan, rape is reason for shame and for the repudiation of the woman. If the medical examination were to show that a woman has been raped, under government control, the woman would be condemned instead of being helped.
If a woman were to escape from a forced marriage, once she arrives at the refuge she would be denounced by the government, since leaving home is considered a crime.
Young women sent home would live a life of shame and marginalisation , if they are not killed, as is shown by various cases of stoning in different parts of the country in recent months.
If the family were to ask for the return of the woman - whatever the reason, including a forced marriage, the staff of the refuge could not refuse. As if this were not enough, many women who have been in refuges will be accused of adultery within their community.
Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world: there will be no guarantee that the funds donated by international agencies for women victims of violence will be properly controlled.

The Karzai government, set up and maintained by the US-NATO occupation, is certainly not distinguished by its respect for human rights. :

In March 2009 the Karzai government passed a law against women - particularly those from the Shiite community. According to this law, women could not refuse to have sexual relations with their husbands and they could not go to work, to the doctor, or to school without his permission.
In March 2007, the Karzai government guaranteed an amnessty for all the crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan in the last 20 years.
In January 2007, the journalist Parwez Kambashkh was condemned to death by a tribunal in Balkh, after being accused of blasphemy because of his ideas about equal rights for women. Though Parwez was pardoned following international pressure, dozens of other journalists operate in the same situation.
In July 2006, the Karzai government reintroduced the “Ministry of Vice and Virtue”, - sadly well known under the Taliban regime.
Moveover, Afghan human rights organisations denounce constant pressure from the government to legalise the “informal justice informale” (tribale) which provides for the stoning of women.

E l’Italia?

Between 2001 and 2011, the Italian government has invested hundreds of millions of Euro in a project to rebuild the justice system in Afghanistan. We call on the Italian government and the political forces that have supported - and still support - the military intervention in Afghanistan to explain how the funds for the rebuilding of the Afghan justice system have been spent, given that in recent years laws have been passed that penalise rather than favour human rights and the rights of Afghan women.

INFO CISDA: cell. 3336868938
COORDINAMENTO ITALIANO SOSTEGNO DONNE AFGHANE Onlus
BANCA POPOLARE ETICA – Agenzia Via Melzo, 34 – Milano
IBAN: IT64U0501801600000000113666 – SWIFT: CCRTIT2T84A

Afghan Women

To Be a Woman is to Fly

2011-02-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

On February 13th (the day of the mass demonstrations against the decline of public life symbolised by Berlusconi) there were so many people - women and men in Rome's Piazza del Popolo that you just couldn't get in and once in couldn't get out. Cell phones weren't working, so it wasn't possible to meet up as we'd planned. The only thing to do was to relax, listen, and talk with those beside us in the Piazza.

The speeches from the platform weren't particularly great. It wasn't a real public meeting with professional speakers. There were quite a few readings, some of them boring - as reading often are when performed by people who don't know how to project their voices and maintain a rhythm. There were also some rather dubious speeches... but the demonstration was peaceful and relaxed, made up of people who, in all simplicity and without moralism, were standing up for their dignity, their right to live in a civilised country.

And it was a marvelous gathering. People of all sorts, tolerant acceptance of all political positions and all life style choices from nuns to sex workers. There was the feeling that you have at the theatre when the comedy ends - you didn't like it, it was all to overdone, vulgar and farsical. It didn't make you laugh, in fact it was a little nauseating like a joke in bad taste told over and over again by pimply adolescents.... Finally it ends. You can leave without disturbing everyone on your row and when you get outside in the fresh air, you realise that the play has bored and nauseated everyone.. you can see the it written on their relieved faces .

There wasn't just Piazza del Popolo. Some women who didn't manage to get in, started an improvised march throuh the streets of central Rome, which because more and more joyful and liberating and which arrived in front of the seat of government. They really enjoyed themselves. Free, indecorous, autonomous, not ready to delegate. Rebels are beautiful, because they have the scent of freedom.

The Rome women in black were in the Piazza and in the march. Those who managed to get into Piazza del Popolo unfurled their banner -Donna é volare (to be a woman is to fly)- in memory of a dear friend. It was a prophetic slogan. All the women who experienced that demonstration know that they won't turn back. It took us some years, but it's clear that we've taken flight and we really can't go back.

Solidarity with the Struggle of Civil Society on the Other Mediterranean Shore

2011-02-15T00:42:00.000-08:00

In recent days we have all seen the tremendous courage of Egyptian civil society, which inspired by the revolution in Tunisia has fought - and continues to fight - to be free of a dictatorship that as lasted more than 30 years.

We use the words of the Seville Women in Black to express our admiration and solidarity.

From civil society in Tunisa and Egypt, enormous waves - tenacious, strong, and decided in their will for social just and freedom - have made the Mediterranean the great lady of the revolution for human rights. a revoultion of active non-violent resistance that reveals the daily reality of life under regimes that have been maintained and supported by both the US authorities and the powers of the EU. Regimes that translate the forms of neo-colonialism, that perpetuate contempt for civil society in support of geostrategic and social economic interests. A double standard, which our western world uses as a characteristic of patriarcal power. So, Egyptian civil society, thanks to the Sadat regime, followed by the Mubarak regime, has been living for decades as a political prisoner under the control of the explicit interests of Zionism within a framework of western interests.

Then, all at once, our western universe discovers that in the mediterranean world "on the other shore", there are societies that are lively and full of aspirations. Almost always, the information we've been given has favoured an image of stagnation and reactionary traditionalism. The media have seized everthing that feeds islamophobia, fear of "terrorism" among our people, rarely mentioning rebellions that succeeded over the years and remaining silent about the systematic violation of human rights.

This veil that covered and protected the US and EU puppet regimes, with measures that went from outrageous levels of aid to sales of arms to be used for repression; a veil cast over the violations of human rights that is only lifted in a few countries, when their goverments come into conflict with the interests of western countries; countries that then the West does not hesitate to threaten and occupy, creating a disaster for the lives of millions of women and men (Iraq, Afghanistan), or instigating civil wars (Rwanda, Ivory Coast).

And while we recognise that such policies are part of the right wing in western politics - whose identification with the culture of death is implicit in their defence of the capitalist, neoliberal economy - we are scandalised by the fact that so-called progressive sectors have favoured, in one way or another, the maintenance of these corrupt, dictatorial regimes (one example among the many: the parties led by Mubarak and Ben Ali are even today part of the Socialist International). With the argument of the "lesser evil" and the fight against "radical Islam", they contribute to the creation of a "demon" which facilitates the miitarisation of the world and of our minds, reinforcing the structures of patriarcal power based on violence and exclusion.

From our position of absolute refusal of any regime that stands in the way of free development of popular sovereignty and of the rights of women, and because of our conviction that every form of violence - including obviously social and economic inequality and sexist, racist, cultural and religious exclusion - generates oppression and violence, in particular towards women, we demand that:

All EU governments must immediately

Explicitly condemn these regimes and their violations of human rights
Stop the export of arms
Show their support for the civil society without interference and with full respect for their sovereignty.

We express our complete solidarity with:

The greater part of the civilian populations of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan.... and with the pacifist opposition in Israel who are mobilising to condemn their current political regimes.

Civilian populations, women and men, who will be able to take the road to the realisation of their demands for political, social and cultural freedom.

People who today in their uprising for human rights expose the many disturbing aspects of our democracies, calling upon us to reinforce the bonds of solidarity and banish from the Mediterranean those interests that are an obstacle to intercultural coexistence, and so to favour peace, social justice, and the emancipation of women and men from all types of oppression.

Work, Rights, Dignity

2011-01-31T08:04:00.000-08:00

The national contract

Freedom to strike

Freedom to join a union

The right to free expression

These are necessary for today and for a more worthwhile future for all women and men.

On January 28th, The F.I.O.M union confederation called a national strike of works in the metal mechanics sector. Many other groups throughout Italy decided to take part - schools and universities, students and other workers and service providers.

The participation in the strike was not in the least ritual. It was not simple solidarity towards "others" but rather a mobilisation to defend the rights of all women and men. We are dealing with questions that affect all, that relate to the lack of prospectives, precariousness, the loss of union and social rights. The relevance of the current conflict was demonstrated when the referendum was heldc in Mirafiori on January 13th and 14th.

The amazing response of the workers (much greater than all predictions!) to the blackmail/referendum was an act of resistance and dignity that tells all of us that the absolute will of the company and the destruction of collective rights can be opposed.

As the women delegates of the F.I.O.M at the FIAT plant in Mirafiori, in Turin, in Naples said:

“in the factory and on the production lines there are many workers who report working conditions that are at the very limit of what can be tolerated. Speeding up working rhythms, moving the lunch break to the end of the shift, cutting break times, imposing 120 hours of overtime, penalising sick leave signifies […] the logic of super-exploitation imposed with blackmail and authoritarianism, [that] breaks bodies and minds, pushes people to desperation and humiliation”

The women of the F.I.O.M rightly claim the right to a life that is not exhausted in the work place, and they maintain that:

“work with rights and the choice of motherhood and family life cannot be counterposed: Work time should not eat up the the rest of life, productivity at all costs is not the banner of modernity.”

We want an economy that is centered on social and environmental justice, cooperation and peace.

Never Again - for Anyone

2011-01-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27th 2011, the Women in Black in Bergamo wish to remember how Nazi and Fascist regimes that carried out the massacres, were born to oppose the rise in consciousness of the working classes.

We recall how the middle classes of the time, in fear of a redistribution of wealth, chose to entrust themselves to authoritarian figures, who - after national-socialist beginnings - invested in weapons and in war as a plan for development and dominion. We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people who suffer injustice and abuse and with those Israeli citizens who struggle beside them to stop the occupation.

In addition, we express our indignation and refusal for the current policies of governments that refinance ill considered and highly expensive military commitments.

Governments that do not show wisdom and do not invest in health, education and employment opportunities for the new generations.
Governments that ignore the protection of the natural and cultural environment of their countries.

We hope that with these actions it will be possible to influence choices for production that are coherent with the needs of Italy and of the environment.

Italian Women in Black, who for years have worked for the peace that comes from justice, express all our solidarity with the demonstrations planned in various Italian cities on 28th January 2011 by trade unions who are fighting for a change in the productive situation in Italy.

We would like to express our respect for FIAT workers and members of the F.I.O.M. union confederation who have taken a clear and dignified position.

For Jawaher - We are here with our hearts in Bil'in

2011-01-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

Bil'in, a village in Palestine
Its land divided by the separation barrier built by Israel.

Bil’in - a village that resist that demands the return of its land

The Israeli court has ruled in their favour.

The barrier must be moved.
The sentence was handed down a year ago - the barrier is still there.

Every Friday, the people march, they go towards the "wall".
They go with flags and music.
They go because they are right.
They go because they won't give in.

Every Friday, soldiers fire tear gas from the hill
- sound bombs too - and not only.
Jawaher is dead.
She breathed in too much gas.
Her brother is dead too - -
He too marched against the wall.

The people weep, the people shout, but they don't give in.

While the world celebrated new year, Jawaher Abu Rahmeh, a 36 year old Palestinian woman, resident of Bil’in, was killed by the tear gas massively used by the Israeli occupation forces against peaceful, non-violent people - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals- who were demonstrating to stop the Wall and the occupation.

Jawaher demonstrated every Friday, marching towards the separation barrier that steals the land from Palestinian farms to be used for the construction of new Israeli colonies. Like many other Palestinian women, Jawaher era courageous, proud, and dignified.
Her mother was still mourning the loss of her beloved son, Bassem, killed two years ago by the Israeli army.

Now she must also mourn the loss of a beloved daughter. We must stand by the Abu Rahmeh family in this new, terrible moment of loss and sacrifice.

We cannot forget Jawaher and her struggle for freedom and the right to live in her own land.

Despite the brutality of the Occupation, the Palestinians do not give up their rights or their freedom. Peaceful, non-violent resistance is spreading in the villages and towns to put an end to:

The occupation
Illegal settlements and their expansion
The apartheid wall
The siege of Gaza
The racist politics that are imposed on the Palestinians in every day life.

Italian Women in Black Join the BDS Campaign

2010-12-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

We are part of the international network of Women in Black, our action in the world is to oppose war and every kind of violence, in the conviction that every conflict can be dealt with by dialogue and respect for human, social, and political rights.

For more than twenty years, we have been committed to a just peace in the Middle East, a peace that applies international law, putting an end to the Israeli colonial policies and to the continuing violence, suffering and collective punishments that have been imposed on the Palestinian population by the Israeli government, by settlers and by the Israeli army in the framework of the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories , apartheid policies and the siege of Gaza.

We have travelled many times to that land and we have listened to Israeli and Palestinian women, we have worked with them to try to create or strengthen relationships.

The Israeli Women in Black was formed at the very start of the first Intifadah, opposing the occupation that their government was determined to continue, and at the same time founding our movement. In Italy, we have supported their struggle and that of the Palestinian women.

We have been to checkpoints to protest with them, we have taken part in international delegations in support of the peace movement and of the non-violent struggle of the Palestinian population. After the massacre in Gaza in 2008/09, in which the Israeli army were involved in very serious war crimes (1400 dead, including 400 children), the situation became much more serious.

For this reason, we have decided, after a long, considered and often painful discussion, to join the world BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). Launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, the Boycott National Committee (BNC) is made up of more than 170 Palestinian organisations, committees, parties and trade unions. The campaign is supported by associations, movements and even some governmental institutions in Europe and the rest of the world.

We also support the Palestinian Authority's campaign "Your conscience, your choice" for a boycott of products within the occupied territories, enacted by a law that prohibits the distribution and consumption of products from the illegal Israeli settlements and by the mobilisation of thousands of young women and men with whom the BNC collaborates.

Lastly, we support the campaign “Boycott from Within”, launched in support of BDS by a large range of non-violent associations in Israel, including the Coalition of Women for Peace and the Israeli section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Boycott is a non-violent practice of non-collaboration with injustice.

Economic boycott is practiced against goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements and on goods produced by firms or multinational companies that support the occupation. Citizens and consumers refuse to buy certain goods produced without respect for human rights, labour rights, or environmental norms, and demand the full application of the terms of commercial agreements between the EU and Israel and respect for international law.

Cultural boycott denounces agreements of universities, local authorities and other Italian institutions for technological, scientific and cultural collaboration with Israeli institutions who are involved in the occupation. The government of Israel actually uses universities, film, literature and tourism to promote an image of a normal country, living in peace, happy and democratic, which seeks to hide the image of an occupying power that oppresses and systematically violates the rights of the Palestinian people. Of course, cultural boycott should not be applied to those who support the application of international law and the non-violent struggle against military occupation.

As Italian citizens, we call for the abrogation of the military agreements with the State of Israel. The current collaboration of the Italian state with an oppressive regime is a green light for further crimes and violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The boycott is not directed against the Israeli population and certainly not against Jews as a whole, but against the Israeli government, against the occupation of the Palestinian territories, against the ever growing colonial settlements, against the war economy. We also link the boycott to initiatives for the right to study for young Palestinians. We are determined to maintain are links with Palestinian and Israeli women who support the BDS campaign and to promote interventions by them in Italy.

We believe that BDS is necessary instrument to stop the colonial expansionist Israeli policies, a means of holding Israel and the international community responsible for the violations of international law and human rights. We believe it is also a means of communication for spreading the work about what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.

A race against death for Nasrin Sotoudeh

2010-12-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Italian Women in Black support the appeal to the Iranian government launched by the Iranian Nobel peace laureate, Shirin Ebadi, for the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer and human rights activist, who has been in prison for more than three months and who has now started her third hunger strike.

For the Iranian regime, Nasrin Sotoudeh is 3 times guilty:

Guilty of being a woman of conviction

Guilty of being a human rights lawyer.

Guilty of daring to speak out against the regime

Shirin Ebadi and another six signatories of the appeal for Nasrin Sotoudeh's release, among them well known Iranian women's rights activists, have stated that on 20th December, they will start a vigil outside the offices of the UN in Geneva and remain until their colleague Nasrin Sotoudeh is released from Evin jail where she is being held in solitary confinement.

The life of Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, defender of human rights and activist for women's rights, is in grave danger. Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested by the Iranian authorities on September 4th 2010 for her human rights work and she has now been in prison for more than 103 days. The prosecutor has accused this courageous lawyer of propaganda against the state and activities against national security. According to the Iranian penal code, charges should be brought within a maximum of seven days after the conclusion of the preliminary investigations.

In addition, according to the Iranian penal code, it is illegal to hold a detainee in solitary confinement after charges have been brought and after the start of the trial. But Ms Sotoudeh has been in solitary confinement since the first day of her imprisonment and repeated requests by herself and her lawyer have been ignored. As a consequence Ms Sotoudeh decided to start a hunger strike to protest against the non-application of the law and has been on dry hunger strike since December 4th.

However, in addition to ignoring her requests, the judicial authorities have brought new charges against her, accusing her, for example, of not respecting the islamic veil.

We, a group of women's rights activists, signatories of this communique, who have either had the honour of working with this courageous lawyer for many years or have been helped by her, in order to express our solidarity with Nasrin and in protest at the violation of her rights, will start a vigil at the headquarters of the UNO in Geneva on December 20th.

We appeal to all who love freedom, to women's rights activists, to members of the universal family of human rights, inviting them to join us in calling for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, in any possible way - by joining our vigil, sending emails and protest letters to the Iranian government, holding protests at Iranian embassies. We ask for your help in reaching the whole world with the voice of justice for our friend in prison.

Signatories: Shirin Ebadi, Khadijeh Mogaddam, Mansoureh Shojaee, Parvin Ardalan, Shadi Sadr, Asieh Amini, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh

Nasrin Sotoudeh: Lawyer, Activist, Mother

Shirin Ebadi has also called for an avalanche of letters to be sent to the Iranian authorities and to our own governments. You can send a letter from here:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6160/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4638

Meeting with Martha Giralda from Ruta Pacifica

2010-12-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

We were five women of Women in Black from Bologna, two from Ravenna, three from Padova, one from Turin, and one from Verona, in addition to Martha. We are all very happy to have been in this meeting and to have met Martha: she is a calm but determined woman with whom we felt immediate sympathy. She does not hide problems but addresses them with clarity, looking for a solution.

In the introduction, made by Patricia, some points were outlined, that were later taken up again by Martha, setting out the situation in Colombia from the women’s point of view:

The women from Ruta are trying to rebuild the relationships with the Organización Femenina Popular, even while acknowledging some persistent differences in point of view: Ruta is deeply opposed to all the armed actors (military, paramilitary, guerrilla), while O.F.P. has met with men of both the guerrilla and paramilitaries.

The former President Uribe tried to involve some representatives of women’s organizations in his politics. Two women accepted to be part of the governmental commission on the Justice and Peace Law that deals with war crimes, while Ruta refuses such involvement.

Some women’s organizations do not want to put violence against women, practised by all the armed actors, at the core of their politics.

Martha communicated immediately that the International Encuentro will be in Bogota from 15-10 August 2011. Ruta will organize, after the Encuentro, a tour of the 9 regions in which Ruta has a presence. It will be an inexpensive tour so that women coming to the Encuentro will be able to gain a better knowledge of the country and of the places where the armed conflict most damages the lives of women and people.

Ruta wants to take advantage of every journey women make in order to prepare the August international Encuentro, to understand why, till now, the response has been so weak, and to stimulate participation.

Martha in her thanks defined Italian WiB as a pillar of the women’s movement against war. That is the reason the Colombian women expected a lot of Italian women (as also women from Spain) to participate in the encuentro planned for this November (2010). Women living in conflictual countries (Palestine, Afghanistan, Sahrawi, Congo, Colombia….) especially need support for their struggle through initiatives of political pressure and protection. The support should aim to make more visible the problems experienced by women in those difficult places (for example, we should not forget what is happening to Palestinian women) and to amplify the value of their actions.

Political pressure and initiative in our countries can give them the strength to acquire more political influence in their country and can produce a “humanitarian corridor” that gives them protection. For example, the women of Ruta, being secular, have no protection – not even by the Church. So it is important that a large number of international women will attend the Encuentro they are organizing. Their actions expose them, and increase the risk to their safety and their lives. If the number of the international participants is low, their position is weakened; if it is high, it affords them protection, strength and recognition. This is why it was necessary to postpone the International Encuentro from November until August. It is also the reason this one in August cannot and must not fail.

They hope that international initiatives will involve creative non-violent direct action against war, actions that will be carried out in different cities worldwide, every month, after we have decided together the contents and the schedule. There are some very creative young women in the Ruta to whom they give the space to do NVDA. Sometimes the young women find it difficult to understand why we fight against war and not for peace, and this can be interpreted as a feminist interpretation of war.

Martha gave two examples of non-violent direct action. One was performed by themselves in Colombia when, taking advantage of a curve in the road, they inserted into a military parade a tank covered with flowers and firing flowers, pictures of which were conveyed worldwide. Another was realized in Spain and in Belgium, in which a group of women went with children into the toy department of a big store (in a shopping centre). The children fired with a red water pistol, ‘shooting’ the women who fell on the ground.

We need to generate shared thoughts and actions if we are to give more visibility and strength to the movement. With this aim it should be possible to announce a competition of ideas for non-violent direct action and performances and to organize workshops on non-violence and its practice. We should commemorate certain historical events when freedom and dignity were won without bloodshed, incidents that are little known, especially by young people. In this way we can transmit values to them.

About the XVth International Encuentro of Women in Black, Martha stressed above all that it is the first time that the Encuentro is to be held in a country outside Europe (or not directly linked with Europe, like Israel), but rather in a Latin American country that has seen the maximum of violence and war, and where the human rights defenders suffer continuously from aggression against them.

She then set out the five thematic strands proposed for the Encuentro:

First Strand: Militarized security, armaments and women’s protection. How feminism interprets the security politics in the current world (militarisms, arms race, wars in the global south, arms in the global north, protection of women).

Second Strand: Justice for war crimes and human rights violations against women. Experiences in “ad hoc” Courts and International Criminal Court.

Third Strand: Reading of actual conflicts by feminisms. Armed conflict; religious conflict; illegal economies; sexism and xenophobia.

Fourth Strand: Transforming actions or practices of women in response to challenges. Meeting of the participants to discuss the strategies that move women and transformative actions by women.

Fifth Strand: The challenge of Women in Black. How do we interpret ourselves and how do we answer. Balance of Women in Black.

For each strand there will be: an introduction done by a woman (for the first one they are thinking of Luisa Morgantini, who has already been informed and has accepted); then workshops; and finally a report-back to plenary.

The fourth strand is designed to help us to get to know each other, to recall different historical memories, to discover how we are each interpreting our own realities, and the external realities of other countries. We are interested in the achievements of women, and particularly of WiB, in each country. We should accord full value to our practices and initiatives. About this, Martha said that when she goes to another country, she notices the importance of WiB in that country, while the WiB women themselves cannot perceive it. She said, “Unfortunately you Europeans think Europe as a country for old people!”.

The work and related conclusions of all themes should merge in the fifth one and in the final plenary, when we will take decisions.

We must ascribe value to the non-violent actions that we undertake: war takes away dignity and freedom, while the non-violent actions can by contrast add to freedom and dignity.

Women from OFP will be invited to the Encuentro because they are members of the Women in Black network.

In preparation for the Encuentro, the Colombian women ask that we discuss, both at local and national level, the proposed five thematic strands, and send our findings out on the international e-mail network. For them, the worst thing about their initiative last November was the silence: Ruta now ask us to break this silence, to write, even as individuals, expressing our difficulties (economic difficulties, difficulties related to the relationships between the Colombian women, or any others) and to state our intention to participate.

Ruta have pinpointed twenty women whose participation in the Encuentro they consider to be very important, but who cannot afford the expense of travel and registration. They should be “adopted” by international women (indeed some already have been). Ruta are prepared to manage the money involved in that.

Deadlines:

We WiB present in Bologna decided to start a fund raising to adopt some women coming from “difficult places”; we should send what we collect to Ruta by February.

Registration for the Encuentro must be done by March and will be published on the international network in order to attract others to participate – they call this “animar la fiesta” – livening up the party.

Women say No to NATO

2010-11-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

An anachronism of the Cold War

NATO was founded by the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and 9 other European countries, among them Italy, as an alliance against the countries of the soviet bloc. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, but NATO is still around, in fact it has expanded, adding countries from central and eastern Europe and from the Balkans.

… that's getting bigger all the time

Currently, NATO has 28 members, and there is an attempt to add Finland, Sweden, and some Mediterranean, North African, and Arab states. The middle east, including Israel is on its horizon.

… contrary to the spirit of the United Nations

The Secretaries General of the NATO and of the UN have signed a joint statement of cooperation, without the authorisation of the UN assembly. This puts the independence of the UN and its capacity to support international law at risk. I

… a force that is ever more prepared for war

NATO has fought wars outside its borders in Kosovo and now in Afghanistan and it is becoming an ever greater threat to world peace. Three quarters of all military spending is made by members of NATO.

...a nuclear bunker
NATO controls more than 11,000 French, British, and US nuclear warheads, deployed in different parts of Europe, including Italy with 90 nuclear warheads, in contempt of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (1975). A collection of signatures for a popular initiative law that would make Italy a nuclear free zone was ignored by our parliament.

Why women are protesting against NATO

In our country, military spending for NATO is growing all the time while there is a serious reduction in spending for goods and services that are really needed. This has a heavy impact on the lives of women. In a country of catastrophes, earthquakes, foods and neglect - Italy - there is a continual growth of militarisation instead of investment for a civilisation worthy of the name.

The war which is coming is not the first one. There were other wars before it. When the last one came to an end There were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common people starved. Among the conquerors the common people starved too. Bertolt Brecht

With the bases and the military presence, sexual exploitation and violence against women increase. For example, the wars in the Balkans produced an enormous industry of sex and of trafficking women.

Women suffer more the effects of war. They are the majority of the civilian victims, of the refugees and displaced. Thousands are deprived of the means of survival, as has happened in Afghanistan where, in addition to the waste of resources for a war without sense or end, war has brough destruction and death

But women do NOT accept the role of VICTIMS. Rather, women have and can always have a key role in the prevention of conflicts, in reconciliation and the construction of peace processes.

As women, we do NOT recognise any role for NATO in our security, whihc can be achieved only by peaceful negotiation and nonviolent resolution of conflicts.

Why women are protesting today

At the NATO summit in Lisbon from 19 to 21 November, a new strategic concept is to be adopted. it will commit NATO more and more to strategies of militarisation. Among other things, the decision will be ratified to transfer all US nuclear war heads currently deployed in Europe to Aviano in Italy and to Turkey. While the Turkish government has at least imposed some conditions, the Italian government accepts in silence.

In tens of cities, in Italy and in Europe, in these days there are protests against NATO and its ever more threatening policies. Export of arms, nuclear weapons, military bases and subjection to the interests of the US are all a part of NATO.

Knowing the suffering caused by war from the Afghan women, we demand wthe withdrawal of Italian troops and all other troops from Afghanistan.

Bodies and Territories without War or Violence

2010-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends of Women in Black all over the world.

First of all, we want to send you our greetings, always with the conviction that in every corner of the planet members of the Network are opposing the buildup of armaments, militarism, war and also all violence, convinced that any violent action against other human beings and nature, as well, is an affront to humanity and the planet, and this is why we are determined to eradicate violence from our lives and bodies. We know that this policy position keeps us united as sisters.

This letter is to communicate to you that, most unfortunately, conditions are not auspicious to have our Gathering of Women in Black in November of this year. We have had to make this decision because just a month and a half from the date of the event only six women had registered. After we sent out an SOS, the number rose to 16. We would have liked to receive a response from a significant number of women, but it didn’t work out that way.
We are aware of the difficulties that resulted from this decision, especially for the women who had purchased their ticket and we sincerely hope that they are able to obtain a new reservation. But after careful consideration, we felt that a gathering with 16 international women who are part of the movement, was not enough to carry out a task of this nature, as we understand that these gatherings are to redefine, exchange ideas, maintain the movement active in the world and, at the same time, for us, the women of Colombia, it was an act of international accompaniment against war, an internal armed conflict that has lasted for more than 45 years in Colombia and has left more than 4 million victims and great human degradation and social injustice.

With regard to the concerns expressed by some members of the Network on our ability to carry out this gathering, we want to tell you that it not for lack of ability, rather for lack of participation of the members of the Network that we have made this decision, as has been well expressed by some colleagues who have written that the situation should be analyzed from the point of joint responsibility, because in this process we have felt great silence from many. We were hoping for more support from the Network, especially with regard to encouraging women to come to the Gathering, so that it would take place with an appropriate representation of members of the Network.

Ruta Pacifica of Women has been part of the Network of Women in Black since 2001, and our participation was assured with approximately 300 women; we could have had more. But it really wasn’t a matter of an event for Ruta Pacifica but to carry out arrangements for the XV INTERNATIONAL GATHERING OF WOMEN IN BLACK and for that we need the backing and participation of all.

We had carried out the activities necessary to prepare for the Gathering. We just about had everything ready, a web page, pictures, strategy for publicity. We have conducted multiple negotiations, reserved places to accommodate you, proposed themes, methodology, symbolic proposals, translations, among other things, and because of that we reiterate our disposition and desire to undertake the Gathering for the third week of August 2011, the Network being in agreement, of course.

If, however, there is another proposal we ask that you let us know as soon as possible. Likewise, please let us know how you feel about coming for the date proposed in 2011, as you will surely understand that it would be very costly for us, at every level, to repeat this situation next year.
In addition, we would love to see materialize the proposal of the women of London that those who already have their tickets come to Colombia in November. It would be a great help if we could get together and contribute to the preparation of this Gathering, which is very important for us, and to participate in some activities on 25 November, Day of Non-violence Against Women.

We will return the registration fee to the women who ask for it. If you decide to postpone your trip, please let us know.

We reiterate that the postponement date for the XV International Gathering of Women in Black is 15-20 August 2011.

Please receive a sisterly embrace from Colombia.

Dear friends,

also we Italian Women in Black are really very sorry that the International meeting of Women in Black network had to be postponed to 2011.

We realize that it must have been a difficult decision for you, but we believe you have been brave and wise considering that the participation from the other continents was too low for the date of November 2010. We keep convinced that in Valencia the best choice was taken, therefore it is good to remain engaged for the Bogota meeting.

We have also praised how you were organizing it, both on the logistics level anf for the agenda you sent us, which looked very well structured and productive.

In an Italian national meeting at the end of October, we discussed the reasons why so few Women in Black enrolled for participation, in particular from Europe and we considered that it was a collective responsibility: we have not exchanged our minds, information and proposals on time, so the news that so few women had enrolled came totally unexpected. We must absolutely bear that in mind for the planning of the next meeting.

For August 2011 we need a much better and frequent coordination. It is true that the economical crisis has increased the constraints and difficulties, but we have a history of an active solidarity, for which more privileged women support women in more difficult situation. That must continue in a better organized way, circulating in the network not later than in spring 2011 both a sort of pre-enrolment to the meeting from the various countries and more information about the financial support that some group can provide to the organizing country and to other Women in Black from "difficult places" who wish to come to Colombia.

We also thank you for suggesting the month of August for our next meeting, as it is easier for women living in the north hemisphere to have time free from work engagements.

However, we believe that the participation of many women from the whole Latin America is very important, as we are all looking forward to such a great opportunity of exchanging and sharing your realities, the peculiarities of your movements, your visions and your modalities of action.

We appreciate Rebecca's suggestion and we hope that the women who have already purchased their flight tickets for this November can meet in Bogota for a first exchange with you, Colombian Women in Black and Ruta Pacifica, in view of the 2011 gathering. We are convinced that this can be a very useful preparation for all of us.

Hoping that from now onwards we are having a good way to Colombia next August, we are grateful to what you have done so far and you will be doing in the future. Please let us know what you expect from the international network so that we will be able to support you in the best direction you show us.

We all send you our love, friendship and solidarity

The Italian Women in Black network

No to War, Yes to Culture

2010-11-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday 6th November, in front of Novara prefecture, from 3pm onwards, the committee of teachers and teaching assistents with non-secure contracts and the students union held a protest with the slogan:'No to war, yes to culture', opposing the cuts to schools, universities, and research made by Minister of education Gelmini, at the same time as the ministry of defense is planning to buy 131 F35 fighter bombers and annual military spending amounts to 20 billion Euro.

In the midst of an economic crisis, the Berlusconi government has launched the greatest attack that any government in the history of the republic has made on the future of young people.

7,3 billion euro - thats the figure that the Minister of Education wants to cut. One billion, six hundred million in 2010 alone.

The same fate awaits universities and research, which must reduce spending by 810 million euro this year.

And then there are the 232 cultural institutes for which the ministry of culture has already cut funding.

And while savings are made on the backs of students and workers, the 2010 budget for the ministry of defense will be 20 billion, while in the coming years 13 billion will be spent on buying 131 F35 fighter bombers.

All this despite the fact that according to our constitution: “Italy repudiate war”.

The start of assembly work on the F35s just at the beginning of this difficult year of new cuts is a curious coincidence. The area of Cameri airport, near to Novara, is only one of the places designated for this work.

What future do we want?

To oppose all of this, the committee of teachers and teaching assistents and the union of students state firmly:

NO to the teaching of use of weapons and the military culture, as poposed by the protocol of ministers Gelmini (education) and La Russa (defense)

Yes to quality schools with: laboratories, safe classrooms, classes that are not overcrowded, modern teaching methods.

NO to the purchase of the F35 fighter bombers and to every other useless military expenditure;

Yes to quality universities and to funding of research;

NO to the culture of fear and to the false rhetoric of security that creates useless armies;

Yes to an army of conscious citizens who are educated in the culture of legality and non-violence;

NO to theatres of war that leave behind them dead and displaced people and ruins;

Yes to theatres, to music, and to all that nourishes the civil consciousness of society and the people;

NO to schools that cut off support abandoning disabled students and their families;

Yes to schools that teach the value of integration and of dialogue between peoples.

Are we at war?

2010-11-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is the question that was posed in parliament following the latest deaths of Italian soldiers in Afghanistan. An though since 2003 it's been called a “peacekeeping mission”; in reality the mission was always under military command, in particular under NATO command, and the logic with which it was carried out was always the logic of war; and we are seeing the effects of it.
	Drawing by a 12 year old Afghan

One very significant piece of information is how the Italian involvement has grown over the years in terms of men and monex: from the contingent of 1000 soldiers in 2003 we arrived at 3900 in 2010, and 4500 are planned for 2011, while the costs have gone from 100 million Euro in l 2003 to 675 million Euro in 2010. Between 2003 and the present day, 90,000 men have served in the theatre of operations and tours of duty have gone from four to six moths. Since the start of the mission, the total cost has been 3 billion 100 million Euro.

To get an idea of what would happen if we reversed the logic, as the coordinator of the Italian Disarmament Network writes, “Military spending is a disadvantage... disarment and peace are not only right for thouse who believe in them, but also sensible: in ten years global military spending has grown by 50%, from 1000 to 1500 billion, but employment in the arms industry has decreased", while the same money invested in society would bring “a doubling of jobs and growth 1.5 times the average economic growth”.

In addition to the exorbitant costs, we know that the information that we are given hides the reality of what is happening, and those like Emergency, who expose the truth, are subject to censure, criticisms, and attacks. Now, documents are emerging - kept secret until now - about the tens of thousands of civilian victims and about the responsiblity of troops from different countries, including Italy.

For years, they told us that the aim of the mission was to bring democray and peace to Afghanistan to promote women's rights. Only because of our direct relationships with Afghan women's associations have we been able to follow the situation that faced them and to recognise the capicit for active, non-violent resistence of the population and the courage of the women that permits them to say openly that they want the end of the war, of the military occupation, and of the war lords and opium lords who are clearly supported by the US.

These women are a point of reference for the entire population because of the capacity that they have demonstrated to interpret their pain and provide for their own needs: from this has come the founding and operation of women's associations for education of girls and boys, which were already clandestinely active under the Taleban regime - a political and humanitarian commitment full of difficulties and grave risks.

With fighting in progress, women are robbed of the possibility to express themselves. Together with children they are the target of massacres, which they know to be cruel and useless.

We must support the Afghan women and the civil society and determinedly demand the end of the occupation of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of Italian troops and those of other countries.

Set Peace Free

2010-11-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

On October 11, Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced by an Israeli military tribunal to 12 months in prison for his involvement in the non-violent popular struggle against the wall and the settlements in Bil'in.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Popular Committee for non-violent resistence was arrested last year by soldiers in a night raid at his home. He was then arraigned in an Israeli military court on charges that were without any basis, including having thrown stones at soldiers during a demonstration and possessing weapons.

Abu Rahmah was cleared of both these charges but found guilty of having organised illegal demonstrations and having incited people to participate. Abu Rahma's case is an example of the Israeli military legal system that operates in the West Bank, and which has the clear aim of silencing the legitimate political dissent of the population.

The conviction has been strongly criticised at international level: Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foriegn Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, expressed her concern "the possible imprisonment of Mr Abu Rahma is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation barriers in a non violent manner."

EU diplomats were present at all the hearings of the trial. Catherine Ashton's statement was followed by a similar statement from the Spanish parliament.

Unfortunately, the Italian government has not made any such declaration. The American group , Jewish Voices for Peace, have organised a letter writing campaign aimed at many governments, including Italy.
Click here to send a letter to Franco Frattini.

"Freedom' - Without Walls, Without Borders"

....is written on the banner held by activists during a protest in the centre of Tel Aviv for the liberation of all political prisoners.

Solidarity with the mourning mothers in Iran

2010-11-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Italian Women in Black extend their solidarity to the Mothers of Laleh Park (the mourning mothers in Iran) who are supporting Zhila Mahdavian, mother of Hesan Tarmasi and Akram Neghabi, mother of Saeed Zeinali, who have been imprisoned for defending their sons, held in the terrible Iranian prisons. They demand that they be freed as soon as possible and that the Iranian government respect human rights, women's rights, and the right of mothers to defend their children.

Akram Neghabi is the mother of Saeed Zeynali- a student who was arrested 11 years ago. Since then, his mother has not had any news of him.

Zhila Mahdavian is the mother of Hesam Tarmasi; Hesam was arrested by security forces during the protests following the elections. He was releasted, but since then has been in hospital with serious problems of the kidneys and liver.

These mothers and families are trying to find the truth about the killing, imprisonment and disappearance of their loved ones. They want answers from the government and they demand the liberation of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

Military spending from our pockets

2010-10-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hardly a day passes withot demonstrations by students and staff from every type of school, protesing against indiscriminate cuts in educational resources and staff (the biggest ever mass redundancies in Italy: 140,000 jobs and 7.5 billion euro in three years.

Students, teachers, and other staff are fighting the dismantling of the state school system that plays a fundamental role in the development not only of individuals but of the society as a whole.

Unfortunately, serious as they are, these are not the only cuts that are crippling the welfare state this year. In addition there are: 271 million euro less for social policies,127 million less for the civil service, 90 million less for families, 14 million less for equal opportunities, 58 million less for youth. Funds for immigration support have been wiped out.

Within three years, there will be more than 5 billion less for health and 9.2 billion less for local authorities, which will therefore be forced to reduce services to citizens.

The Italian government, however, chooses to continue its immense investment in military resources. We thing that instead we could:

withdraw troops from Afghanistan with an annual saving of 500 million euro.

Not sign the contract for the production and purchase of the F35 bombers with a saving of 15 billion over 16 years. ( 207. 6 million in 2010)

Save an annual three billion euro reducing the armed forces to 120 thousand.

End the military presence in our cities, with asaving of 31.2 million euro. ,

These are economies that could be used to avoid a significant part of the cuts in social spending.

As feminists and pacifists we have always opposed military spending on ethical grounds, but it's obvious that in this phase of crisis, this spending has a heavy impact on all or lives.

Resources must be used to improve the standards and quality of life of people not to build and buy weapons whose only use is to kill.

SOS Rebuilding of L'Aquila

2010-07-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

On July 7, 20, 000 citizens of L'Aquila arrived in Rome to protest against the government programme, to break the silence imposed by the media on popular initiatives in the area devastated by the earthquake, and to demand equality and rights.

The Request:

A law that includes:

Freezing of payments on mortgages and loans, the suspension of taxes for 5 years followed by an interest free period of 10 years.
Security for the unemployed and those without stable jobs
Measures to restart the economy
A reconstruction plan for the city and villages by way of efficient processes
All the necessary economic resources, possibly requiring a solidarity tax.

L'Aquila, in the midst of thousands of difficulties, has been able during the past months to show an iron will to not lie down and die, to resist - giving life to numerous forms of protest and proposals, from the experience of citizens committees to the wheelbarrow movement, from participative planning to the citizens assemblies within the Permanent Protest at Piazza Duomo.

Despite this, a mode of handling the emergency, unheard of in Italy, has excluded the participation of the people from any participation in the definition of their future, imposing choices and cultural models that have redefined the zone, favouring the depopulation and speculation and leaving all the problems unresolved, above all the reconstruction of our city and surrounding villages, that has never been started.

We were among the first to denounce transformation of the Civil Defence, which - in a similar way to the treatment of the garbage issue in Campania - has used a modus operandi made up of large tenders, big events and little or no transparence. Thanks to the network that we have established together with other Italian organisations and movements, we have organised mobilisaions against its transformation into a public limited company.

Article 39 of the finance bill that the government is rushing through is only the latest blow that the Italian establishment has dealt our area.

We are asked to start paying tax and mortgages again, starting on 1st July 2010 and to repay all the contributions that were suspended in a very short time and in a way that has not been made clear.

At present, it is simply impossible for us to comply with this demand, because in our territory there are 16000 who have lost their jobs and ofthese many are now on benefits.

Because nothing has been considered or done by the government or the various commissions to favour the relaunch of the economy, if we exclude the ridiculous contrbution of 800 euro for three months paid to shopkeepers and artisans -which is insufficient to even pay their debts to suppliers.

We are not asking for particular privileges, just for our rights. After the earthquake struck Umbria the affected population were only asked to repay 40% of the suspended taxes 12 years after the earthquake.

We are asking for an integrated law that can set up funds and fixed timelines for reconstruction. In June 2009, when they protested against the Abruyyo decree, the people already knew that the funds that had been set aside were completely insufficient. Now even the local institutions are telling us that even funds for confronting the emergency that hasn't finished have run out (for example, money to pay for hotels where thousands of citizens are still forced to live, and part payments to those who managed to find a place to stay - these have been suspended since January, and the costs of repairing buildings with slight damage).

We want to escape from the continual uncertainty dictated by a system of emergency regullations and last minute postponemnts. We want to rebuild and we believe that this battle concerns others outside our territory.

L’Aquila will not surrender,it will try to resist. More than 20,000 of us marched through the city streets and occupied the motorway for two hours on 16th June. The news was censored by the mainstream media. Unfortunately we are accustomed to information about our territory that favors propaganda and emphasises the shows put on by politicians, systematically ignorign the real conditions in which we are living.

The Response

The demonstration in Rome finally ripped aside the papermache scenary that the Berlusconi government had erected to make Italians believe that that a miracle had been achieved in L'Aquila. We hope that at least this message has been heard.

Returning from Palestine and Israel - Marianita and Giuliana

2010-06-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

We took part in the visit to Israel and Palestine with Luisa Morgantini from 19 to 27 April organised by the Association for Peace.

A long time had passed since our last visits (Giuliana in 2005 for the international meeting of the Women in Black, Marianita between il 2000 e 2001 at the start of the second Intifada).

It was a very busy week, during which we were able to take part in important events like the fifth international conference for the non-violent popular resistance in , and meet significant people, groups, and places.

In the document below, you can read a detailed account of our journey. Now we just want to tell you able the things that most impressed us.

Above all, one impression disturbed us: Palestine doesn't exist any more, it's been chewed up, swallowed, devoured by the wall, by roads, by checkpoints but most of all by the colonies that dominate the landscape of the West Bank, where towns and villages - isolated from each other - emerge like islands in a sea of occupation. Jerusalem too - the holy, the city of peac - is strangled in a grip of arrogance made up of cement, the wall, demolished and stolen houses and new settlements.

But if Palestine is disappearing, Palestinian men and women exist and resist: in Bil’in and in the popular committees of the other villages that have chosen the path of unarmed resistance, of the struggle for their rights carried forward with tenacity despite arrests, beatings, the violent reaction of the Israeli army that isn't ashamed to fire on unarmed civilans, wounding and sometimes killing them. In the Jordan valley, surrounded by colonies that steal the land, the water, life itself, they continue to try to farm the little land that still has not been taken from them. In Nablus - in the Balata refugee camp or in the city itself - activities are organised to give hope of a future to the children who still dream of a normal lfe. In Hebron - strangled by settlements that penetrate the heart of the city - they are restoring old houses and trying to bring the old market back to life.

And alongside the Palestinian women and men, those Israeli women and men continue to resist and every Friday, together with the palestinian popular committees, the confront the soldiers of the Tsahal in Bil’in and other villages, or they protest in East Jerusalem, to the rhythm of drums in front of houses stolen by settlers and protected by the police.

We dedicate this account to all of them

to the people of Bil’in, Nil’in and the other villages

to the families of i Sheik Jarrah left homeless and to the young Israelis who support them

to Fathy Khdirawt wh accompanied us along the Jordan valley

to the animators of the Yafa Cultural Center in Balata e and of the Human Supporters Association of Nablus

to Rauda Basir who continues to struggle for and with the women

to the girls and boys of Nablus and its surrounding area who danced and played for us.

to Nurit Peled an Rami Elhanan of Parents Circle who out of the knowledge of pain have drawn the strength to listen to the other and to build together the long and tortuous road of peace

to Nayla Ayesh who came with us to Haifa after 15 years absence

to the activists of the Massawa Center for the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel in Hafa and to the women of Isha Isha and Aswat also in Haifa

to the Combatants for Peace who we met in Jaffa and in particular to Liri who dreams of getting married at a check point

ai responsabili dell’Hebron Rehabilitation Committee che con determinazione cercano di ricostruire il tessuto sociale del vecchio centro di Hebron

to the women who work and who have found refuge at the Mehwar Center in Beit Sahour

to Nidé, Tariq, Sahaladdin and all those whose names we don't remember but whose faces, voices, and message we will not forget.

To Luisa for the passion with which she continues to live all of this despite the pain that it brings and to Cecilia for her kind help.

Viaggio in Palestina

Solidarity with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in Israel

2010-06-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

From the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP)

In the early hours of the morning on Monday 31 May, we awoke to the horrible news of the Israeli raid against pacificists on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which killed more than 10 people and wounded dozens.

The flotilla was carrying 10.000 tons of food, medicines and other products to Gaza, which has been under Israeli siege since 2005 (with even harsher restrictions since June 2007). The siege, designed to isolate and weaken Gaza, is a collective punishment of the civilian population of 1.5 million people.

The Coalition of Women for Peace is in solidarity with the Palestinian people and with the heroic members of the Freedom Flotilla. In spite of the attempts by the Israeli media and autorities to present a picture of unanimous support for the illegal assault on international pacifists, thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against it in recent days.

Spontanous demontration were held immediately after the news of the brutal assault on the flotilla - in Haifa, Nazareth, Shefa-'Amr at other cities in Israel. At the same time, 250 Israelis arrived at the port of Ashdod, in an action organised by the Coalition of Women for Peace and other Israeli organisations to demonstrate against the brutal massacre and to express there solidarity with the flotilla and with the Palestinian people. On Monday evening, there were demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Um-El-Fahem. Demonstrators called for an international effort to lift the siege of Gaza. Other demonstrations will be held during this week in Palestine and Israel.

We would like to share with you some of the voices of the CWP following the raid:

«Despite this attempt to silence criticism, there are many Israeli citizens who are protesting against this massacre and calling on those responsible to give an account of their actions. The official version from the army and the government is not credible, especially since they imposed an electronic blockade on attempts to provide information about the raid. The international community has done very little to bring to justice those responsible for crimes against the palestinian people. Will other countries make more take it on themselves to intervene now that crimes have been committed against their own citizens?

Inna Michael, CWP Resources and Development Coordinator

The massacre of more than j10 militants is the exclusive responsibilty of the State of Israel, which could certainly have avoided the useless bloodshed. The siege of Gaza and the piratical attack on the flotilla by the Israeli armed forces are real provocations. This atrocity must open the eyes of the international community to the crimes committed by Israel. .
Eilat Maoz, CWP General Coordinator

If this is what Israel is capable of doing to pacifists, defenders of human rights and members of parliament, what more are they capable of doing to civilians under military occupation? The time has arrived to reawaken the international struggal against the siege of Gaza and the occupation.

Areen Hawari, Balad, member of the CWP

From the beginning of the siege, the CWP has publically denounced it and called for its immediate end. The international community cannot continue to do nothing – it must use all diplomatic means to put pressure on Israel to end the siege of Gaza and to punish those responsible for war crimes.

Frida 4 June, the coalition of organisation against the occupation and the Palestinian popular committees took part in a joint action to commemorate 43 years of occupation since June 1967. 43 years of domination, of oppression, of segregation, of construction of settlements, of theft of water and land, of military government, of restriction of movement, of demolition of houses, of political arrests, of torture, of war crimes and colonial expansion.

With this action we want to tell Israel to lift the siege of Gaza, to put an end to the occupation and to end the separation between Palestinians and Israelis and between Palestinians and their lands.

We appeal to our friends in the international community to hold vigils of solidarity throughout the world - demonstrating against the siege of Gaza, the endless occupation of Palestine and the deadly attack against innocent civilians who were trying to break the siege.

Massacre at sea

2010-05-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

The high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes.

No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

In the early hours of this morning, the Israeli navy attacked the Freedom Flotilla. According to the Israeli lawyer of the Free Gaza Movement, 10 passengers have been murdered.

With few exceptions, governments of the world are complicit in these murders and in this act of piracy because of the many occasions when they have turned a blind eye to illegal acts by the Israeli government during the 42 years of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli government believes in its impunity - and our governments have given them every reason to do so.

Today and in the next days, demonstrations and vigils will be held in our country and elsewhere to protest against the illegal attack on the six ships that the Israeli navy carried out in international waters against the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla, which were carrying materials that are urgently needed for the survival of the population of Gaza driven to the brink kby the siege that Israel, with the support of the international community has imposed for more than three years, during which time, operation Cast Lead killed more than 1400 people including 400 children.

The ships that made up the flottilla were completely:

PEACEFUL
LEGAL
HUMANITARIAN

Because the aim was only

To contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza and to restore normal life in the strip.

To press Israel, Egypt, Italy and the international communtiy to end the embargo.

To show the people of Gaza that they are not alone.

To call on Israel to respect the norms of International Law and the charter of the Human Rights.

We invite all to send letters of protest to foreign minister Frattini and to the under secretary Letta who had been asked to ensure the intervention of the Italian government and who did not do so.

Demonstrations in Italy

31 May

Rome, 17.00 piazza San Marco.
Milan, 17.30 in piazza San Babila;
Bologna: 17.00 in piazza Maggiore;
Genoa: 18.00 in front of the Prefecture
Turin: 17.00 in front of palazzo Nuovo;
Naples: 17 piazza Plebiscito;
Grosseto: 18 in front of the Prefecture;
Parma: 18 in piazzale della Pace;
Bergamo: 18 in front of the town hall;
Venezia: 17 ponte di Rialto;
Siena: piazza Duomo;
Livorno: 18 piazza Grande;
Firenze: 17 davanti Prefettura;
Padova: ore 17 davanti Prefettura;
Lecce: ore 17.30 piazzetta De Pace;
Pesaro: ore 18.30 davanti al Comune
Treviso: 18.00 davanti alla Prefettura;
Savona: 18:00 piazza Mameli;
Varese: 17 in front of the Prefecture
Viareggio: 17in front of the town hall
Vicenza: 18.30 in front of the Prefecture
L'Aquila: 18 in front of the offices of the Guardia di Finanza;
Modena :17 at the Ghirlandina;
Reggio Emilia: 19 piazza Prampolini;
Empoli:18 piazza della Vittoria;
Mantova: 18, in front of the Prefecture in Via Principe Amedeo;
Arezzo : 19 in front of the Prefecture;
Novara: 17.30in front of the Prefecture.

1 June

Catania 18 in front of the Prefecture;
Cagliari 18:00 sit-in at Bastione Saint Remy;
Brindisi, 17.30 in piazza Santa Teresa.

We Support the Freedom Flotilla

2010-05-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

In these days, a fleet of eight ships is setting sail from ports in Ireland, Turkey and Greece for the port of Gaza City. They are carrying building materials, desalination plant, photovoltaic cells, generators, scholastic materials, and pharmaceuticals for the Palestinian civil society.

It is an action planned and carried out by solidarity organisations and networks and is necessary for the survival of Gaza's population, living under siege for the last three years, deprived of basic necessities and of the materials needed to rebuild a land crushed by the Israeli armed forces' operation Cast Lead, which left more than 1400 dead and more than 5000 injured. Arms that are prohibited by international law were used, including depleted uranium and white phosphorus.

The Israeli government has stated that it will use all necessary means, including force, to prevent the arrival of the ships and the delivery of the cargo. If this happens, the 600 passengers from 40 different nations will be put in danger.

To avoid this happening and to permit the ships to deliver the materials, we ask :

All political forces, members of parliament and people of culture to take a clear position to prevent yet another action by the Israeli government in contempt for the laws that regulate the civilized life of the peoples sharing this planet.
That Italy should bring political and diplomatic pressure to bear on the Israeli government so that they do not prevent the arrival of the fleet in the Port of Gaza city, repeating, in international waters the actions of piracy already committed in similar circumstances in recent years.

The silence in our country that surrounds the suffering inflicted on the population of Gaza and the absence of attention to the humanitarian initiatives of solidarity committees is unacceptable and blameworthy.

Free Market?

2010-05-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

In May 2007, Israel was invited to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Supposedly, the OECD rules define certain conditions of membership for states wishing to join - respect for human rights, a commitment to democracy and to the free market.

In the meantime, Israel has been credibly accused of war crimes (in the Goldstone report among others) during the attack on Gaza and of violations of international humanitarian law not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank.

So much for respect for human rights. And democracy? Can a government that controls the lives of millions of people who haven't been able to take part in elections be called "a democracy"? Can militarily governing a civilian population be considered anything other than a dictatorship?

As for the free market, we aren't so convinced about the reality of this concept in our own country or in the other countries that are already members of the OECD - but using the word "free" in a context that includes the occupied Palestinian territories is simply absurd.

Israel is driving an economy of military occupation. The statistics that it presented to the OECD include the West Bank - or rather they include the settler economy. But the calculations of medium income don't include the Palestinians who work in the settlements - for very low wages - and in the account of social services, the exclusion for these services of Palestinian workers who have paid their contributions is not mentioned.

There is no mention at all of the crushed and suffocated economy of the Palestinians under occupation. And the OECD accepts this. The problem of the inclusion in the statistics of illegal settlements is resolved as a technical rather than a political problem, and the Palestinians are once more made invisible. In the words of Israeli economist Shir Hever

"The OECD treats Israel as a country of 7 million citizens, rather than as a state that has 11 million subjects, of whom 4 million are Palestinians who live under occupation. "

There are only a few days left until the 11th May, the date on which the decision of the OECD on Israel's membership is expected. At least if there isn't a strong mobilisation to make them change their minds. !

One vote against is enough to block the entry of a new member state!

It has emerged that the European Union will take a common position, so that the countries that have doubts such as Norway and Turkey are afraid to express their dissent. Belgium and Ireland have shown themselves open to our arguments, but we need to push them to question the bureaucratic EU decision making process.

Let's let them know they are not alone and that they should oppose the membership of Israel without fear. Israel must not be rewarded with the legitimation of war crimes. The OECD would contradict to its own stated principles by accepting Israeli membership. We are asking for coherence!

Sign the letter to the Secretary General of the OECD and to all member states, calling on them to vote against Israeli membership.

Rewarding Israel for human rights violations will not bring peace or justice.

More information on the Economy of the Occupation

Land Day - in defense of the land and of memory

2010-03-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

Write down

I am an Arab,

You stole the orchards of my ancestors

And the land which I cultivated

Along with my children.

And you left nothing for us,

Nor for our descendents,

Except for these rocks...

So will the state take them,

As it has been said?

Mahmoud Darwish: Identity Card
d

On 30th March the Palestinian People Remember Land Day

The events commemorated on this day go back to the 30th March 1976, starting with the confiscation of hundreds of hectares of Palestinian land by the Israelis in areas with an Arab-Palestinian majority, particularly Galilee.

Following this act, Arabs in the territories occupied in 1948 called a general strike, challenging the Israeli authorities for the first time since 1948.

The Israeli military response was harsh: the army invaded Palestinian towns killing and wounding several defenseless people.

The protests started on March 29th, with a demonstration in Deir Hanna - repressed by force - followed by another in Arraba, where the Israeli military reaction was even stronger and led to the killing of Khair Yassin and the wounding of dozens of citizens.

News of the killing of Yassin led to increased protests in all the Arab areas. The next day, another five people were killed: : Raja Abu Raia, Khader Khalaylah, Khadija Shawahneh, di Sekhnin; Muhsen Taha di Kufor Kenna, and Rafat al-Zuhairi di Ain Shama.

Since then, things have not improved - on the contrary, the policies of expropriation have been extended to the territories illegally occupied in 1967. Confiscations of land continue, as do the colonial projects: day after day, the apartheid wall steals Palestinian land, dividing orchards, villages, towns, families. New settlements are built and older ones are extended.

Racist attitudes are also on the increase, attempting to strip Palestinians of their legal and political rights and to cancel the historic memory of the Palestinian pople. On February 26, the Israeli parliament approved a law that bans the commemoration of the Nakba, the catastrophe of the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Palestine with the creation of the state of Israel. Penalties will be imposed on anyone who shows "signs of sadness and mourning" on the 15th May within the (undefined) borders of Israel. On that date, Palestinians recall the creation of the refugee crisis.

The Israeli group

Zochrot (Remember) is working against these attitudes, insisting that without awareness of the Nakba as an intrinsic part of the creation of the state of Israel, peace cannot be achieved. They also try to bring the history of Palestinian villages to Israelis and foriegn tourists, as shown in these videos:

International Women's Day - Nothing to Celebrate in Ciudad Juarez

2010-03-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

In the realm of non-justice
impunity reigns
total silence is imposed
identifications are hidden
clues, facts, and evidence
are ignored

In an act of complicity
requests are not listened to
meetings are not granted
questions are not allowed
laws do not exist.

In act of negligence
they act as if there have never been
evidence of the crimes of
abducting, torturing, raping,
killing girls
who are poor, fragile, defenceless

In an act of infamous impunity
No one discovers
No one accuses
No one judges
No one punishes
The murderer

In an act of absolute injustice!

From Marisa Ortiz of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa:

Be away of the diversionary offers of governments designed to make us think - presenting us with a flower or opening spaces to speak - how beautiful it is to be a woman and to give us hypocritical recognition. If this consciousness of equality really existed, instead of reserving a DAY for women, they would give us a life and worthwhile social, family, and work-related space, treating with respect and recognition for what we do and what we are, not one day, but an entire life. We women don't need a day of tender attentions, or to be told that we very lovely, nor that a prize be given to the best of the year. To hold debates and conferences that remind us of how miserable are the lives of many women in the world, but .... our own lives? the subject of feminicide is avoided. There's no discussion that even recognises that it exists, because doing so implies the responsibity to be coherent and to act consequentially.

We women of Juarez serve our community, our country, and we make an effort every day to make our work better, we only ask for equality and that there should be justice for all.

On the other hand, what is there to celebrate if the macho attitudes of our governments and authorites continue to favour impunity and to look the other way when they know that women continue to be murdered, that hundreds of girls have been abducted by people known to be protected. Indeed, so far, no one has been found as a result of investigations and we have never found out who are the abductors. We know why, because their destroyed bodies, and their terrible wounds speak to us of horrific torture and violence to which they have been subjected before having their lives torn away.

These attitudes of the government have led to an increase in the murder of women, because there are no effective investigations and the perpetrators are never punished - or even looked for. An even worse, they imply that the girls are responsible for their own tragedies because they had relations with people from the world of drug trafficking, or they try to damage their reputations with false accusations.

The violence against women because they are women continues, and it's enough to look at the figures from CasaAmiga on domestic violence, and other figures never recognised by the government of the countless women abducted, raped, and murdered as has been happening since the 1990s - without even counting the hundreds of disappearances, where the family don't even have the consolation of being able to visit the cemetary with a flower or a prayer, because nothing has ever been found out about their fate, but day by day hope dies of finding them alive.

The autorities can no longer deny or hide the fact that the problem persists: there are 29 girls, almost all minors, about whose fate we know nothing; and a similar figure last year. This year 30 girls are being sought by their families. How many women have been murdered is also unknown, but last year more than 80 women were murdered with extreme violence, and no one even mentions the consequences of these losses for their families: damage to physical and mental health, a tremendous strain of the useless search for justice, disintegration of the family and serious economic, social, family, and scholastic problems when the victim leaves children.

Luckily, the National Observatory of Feminicide, of which we are part, has a register not only of every town but also maintains a count in those parts of the country where this terrible phenomenon is most present, and the figures continue to be alarming. Only last year, therewere 733 women murdered in 11 states of the country.

Faced with this, the question is: what is there to celebrate? It would be better that we dedicate this day to teh memory of the victims, and from now on dedicate or efforts, no matter how humble, to trying to put an end to this misogyny that has created this cultural model that permits and tolerates violence against women in this community that we love.

A strong embrace to all who love and defend life as an inalienable right, to my friends and companions ; HAPPY LIFE

In Ciudad Juárez, young women, mostly from humble backgrounds, have been abducted, kept in captivity, and subjected to ferocious sexual violence before being killed.

Juarez-libro[1]
Ciudad Juarez, la violenza sulle donne in America Latina, l'impunita', la resistenza delle madri.

A day without us

2010-03-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

What would happen if the four and a half million immigrants who live in Italy decided to stop work for a day? And if the millions of Italians who are sick of racism supported their actions?

On March 1st 2010, at least 300 thousand people coloured the streets of Italy yellow - from Trieste to Siracusa, from Palermo to Turin. And so many workers, both Italian and non-Italian did really stop work witnessing to the fact that legal and constitutional instruments cannot have a copyright.

All the demonstrations were peaceful and well attended. And the success of each one cannot be measured only by the number of participants - the hundreds who filled the streets of Siracusa have the same worth as the 30 thousand in Milan or the 20 thousand in Naples. Each reality expressed what was possible to express and gave the best. .

The women in black took part - foreigners not from the point of view of registration, but foriegn to the climate of racism that is poisining Italy today.

We sign up to the manifesto of the 1st of May movement with all our hearts:

1st March 2010, a day without us is a non violent movement that unites people from all backgrounds, genderes, faiths, education, and political orientation.

We are immigrants, children of immigrants, and Italians, brought together by a rejection of racism, of intolerance, and of the closure that characterises Italy today. We recognise the importance of immigration (not only from an economic standpoint) and are indignant about the denigratory and xenophobic campaigns that, in recent years, have led to the approval of laws and ordinances that are far awy from the letter and the spirit of our constitution.

We condemn and reject stereotypes and discriminatory language, racism of every type, especially institutional racism, the manipulatory use of appeals to cultural roots and to religion to justify national and local policies of rejection and exclusion.

We recall that the right to emigrate is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that human history has always been a history of migrations without which there would have been no process of civilisation and construction of cultures. The violation of this and other fundamental rights damages and offends society itself, not just the individuals who are directly affected.

Seeing immigrants as an anonymous mass of parasites or an inexhaustible font of cheap labour represents an immoralf, irrational and counterproductive position.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants present in Italy work hard and fulfil functions that are essential for the maintenance of a complex society such as ours. They are an integral part of Italy today.

The counterposition of "us" and "them" "natives" and "foriegners" is destined to fall, leaving place for the recognition that today we are together, old and new citizens, involved in building the future.

We want an end, here and now, to the politics of double standards, both in law and in the actions of people. Our first objective is to organise a large non-violent demonstration on March 1st 2010,in common with other European countries, non only has France inspired us with la Journée sans immigrés, 24h sans nous, but also Spain, Greece and other countries are gradually taking action.

Together with them, we want to stimulate a serious consideration about what would happen if the millions of immigrants who live and work in Europe decided to stop work or go away . On March 1st, we will make our voices heard in various ways which will be defined in collaboration with regional committees on the basis of feasibility and effectiveness.

We do not rule out anything, but we will always act with respect to the law and to non-violence.

http://www.primomarzo2010.it

Appeal for Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran

2010-02-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

We support this appeal by feminists and women's rights activists in Iran and invite everyone to sign it.

To put an end to violence, to repression, and to obtain the immediate release of all the arrested women activists, we call on the associations, the organisations for women's rights, and feminists throughout the world to show their solidarity with the struggle of Iranian women, by organising initiatives on the 8th March 2010, with the slogan "Freedom and Gener Equality in Iran" as a sign of support for the Iranian women.

For more than 30 years, the women's movement in Iran has been in the front line of the struggle for freedom and equality. Gender discrimination goes hand in hand with the other forms of subordination based on social class, ethnic group, political ideology, and religion.

The progress of democratic though is supported by the peaceful resistence of men and women in defense of gender equality in the judicial, cultural, social and economic areas. For years, Iranian women, using different individual and collective methods, have organised campaigns to change the discriminatory laws and have contributed to the diffusion of gender equality.

By doing this, we risk threats, arrests and trials - many are still in jail.

The 30th anniversary of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) - which Iran has not signed - coincides with the anniversary of 30 years of discrimination against Iranian women and in view of the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in which Iran participated, it can be seen that Iran has not committed itself to end discrimination againstwomen.

In such a delicate situation it become more than necessary to develope female solidarity at a global level with Iranian women, in particular with activists who work for equality of rights and to establish democracy in Iran.

We invite those who defend women's rights, associations, women's organisations, and international networks to show solidarity with the Iranian women and with the democracy movement in Iran.

Sign the Declaration of the Iranian Women

The following are some ways in which you can show solidarity with the Iranian women. These are only examples, don't hesitate to be creative in your expressions of solidarity.

Mark the 8th March, concentrating on the situation of women in Iran in publications, blogs, public meetings, demonstrations, and assembies.
Organise local events concentrating on the struggle underway in Iran as part of the World March of Women.
Use the slogan "Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran" on web sites, Op-Eds, leaflets, publicity, demonstrations and in other innovative actions adopted by activists, artists, feminists, and intellectuals.
Stay in contact (iran.genderequality@gmail.com) by way of our blog, Facebook group “Gender Equality” and the Twitter page, where news of the reactions to the freedom and gender equality initiative will be covered.
Make short films and take photos of your actions and send them to href="mailto:iran.genderequality@gmail.com">

Not in Our Name

2010-02-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

Israel's reaction in Gaza was just

Silvio Berlusconi

With the recent visit of Prime Minister Berlusconi to Israel, the Italian government has made our country complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the possible escalation of war in the Middle East.

Italy is officially supplying armaments, economic investment, and scientific collaboration to anIsraeli government, condemned by international institutions for the construction of the segregation wall, for war crimes in Gaza and for the colonial occupation of the Palestinian territories.

We, as Italian citizens, do not accept complicity in this policy of oppression and war.

For these reasons

We call for the revocation of the military, commercial, scientific and cultural agreements between the Italian and Israeli institutions.
We call for the ending of the Italian and European participation in the shameful embargo of the Palestinian population of Gaza who have been under siege for 4 years.

There is no lasting peace without justice.

Make Afghan Women's Voices Heard

2010-02-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

In the west there's the notion that Afghanistan has been liberated and the fundamentalists deposed, but it's not like that. There's an image of Afghanistan that the media provides and there's Afganistan described by Afghan women

But who will make the voices of Afghan women heard?

RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) has been fighting for 30 years in defense of women's rights and for a secular and democratic state, free of fundamentalism.

Rawa's founder, Meena, was assassinated in 1987 by Afghan agents of the KGB. Since then, the fate democratic opponents of the regime has not changed. Today, RAWA is still forced to work clandestinely, with serious risks to the lives of activists. RAW is active in both social and political projects. Activists perform many social activities in the fields of education, health care, providing microcredits for women's craft projects, while continuing to denounce the violence and the violations of human rights, reported on the site www.rawa.org that has been created by self-taught women.

After the last 8 years of "war on terrorism" with thousands of dead - the most part civilians - the situation in Afghanistan has worsened. 80% of the population live in poverty. Social reconstruction has not happened. Production of opium has increased, and now represents 93% of world production.

Conditions have not improved for Afghan women. On the contrary, the number of abductions, rapes, selling of daughters, forced marriages, prostitution, and suicide have reached unprecedented levels.

Everything is forbidden to women (studying, employment, going out alone) in spite of the fact that the new Afghan consitution recognises equal rights for men and women since 2004.

The Italian Women in Black have been supporting the Afghan women of RAWA since 1999 with direct relations, visits, meetings, and support for funding campaigns. In 2004 the Italian Coordination in Support of Afghan Women (CISDA) was formed on the initiative of the Women in Black, womens organisations, and individual women. It promotes international cooperation projects in favour of Afghan women.

This month, CISDA organised a series of initiatives with Mehmooda, a RAWA activist, in several Italian cities. In Ravenna, the Women in Black Organised two meetings to make afghan women's voices heard
Interview with Mehmooda

In December, at the request of the Legislative Assembly of the Marche region, on the occasion of the founding of the association "Peace University", the Women in Black of Fano invitied RAWA activist Zoya to bring her testimony.

Here are some of the points of Zoya's speech that impressed us all very deeply.

8 years ago, Afghanistan was occupied for three motives: liberation of women, establishment of a democracy, and war on terrorism. After 8 years, after troops from 42 countries have intervened militarily in Afghanistan, after billions of dollars have been spent, these three "aims" have not been realised.
Liberation for women	Domestic violence, rape, abduction - all these crimes remain unpunished, because often those who commit them are linked to those in power, including those close to the government and to the forces of law and order. In the west, it's said that we've been liberated, that the obligation to wear the burqa has been removed, that the law allows us to go to school. but many girls are attacked and acid is thrown in their faces, so they don't go to school and they put the burqa back on. The burqa has only disappeared in Kabul and only among women from the elite sectors. Women are very poor and hungry. There are families that are forced to sell their daughters for 400 dollars. We are told that so much money is arriving, but wear has it ended up? Because of government corruption, it goes to drug traffickers. In all this, what remains for the women? Only suicide! And unfortunately, it seems to be becoming a fashion among young women.
Democracy	It's not RAWA, but the UN who have said that the elections in Afganistan were fraudulent. There is no freedom of speech. Independent journalists have a very difficult life. Some are even killed. RAWA, for example, cannot speak openly. The democratic voices in parliament that denounced war crimes have been expelled.
War on terrorism	After 8 years and billions of dollars, 80% of Afghanistan is under Taleban control. At the beginning we were optimistic about the western intervention, but then we understood that western forces were making comprises and supporting fundamentalist groups.

Voices of Afghan women

Zoya's Story
Raising My Voice: Malalai Joya

Boycott the Fruits of Apartheid

2010-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Boycott is an instrument for the people and for individuals to express their solidarity concretely with those who are struggling in a just cause, and in today's world there is no juster cause that that of the Palestinians.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society made a united proposal to the international solidarity movements; identify ways of boycotting Israeli products, of disinvesting from commercial activities in Israel, of imposing sanctions on the state of Israel, of imposing academic and cultural boycotts on Israelis who do not take a position against the occupation and against apartheid.

All these requests have been coherently formulated in the BDS campaign, which has already achieved many successes (for example against Veolia, Africa-Israel, Motorola..) and has obtained support from organisations in civil society - accademic groups and trade unions from all over the world, including Israel. All the prAinciple unions that represent the Palestinian workers, often used as a workforce in Israel and in the settlements, are among the promoters of the BDS campaign.

Apartheid farms and Carmel Agrexco

In several European countries, a campaign has built up against Agrexco Ltd; the principle export company for Israeli agricultural products, which is partly state-owned.

With the Carmel lable, Agrexco sells around 70% of all fruit and vegetables produced in the Israeli settlements in the occupied territores, including those in the Jordan valley.

Some reasons to boycotto Agrexco:

In the Jordan valley, which covers one third of the West Bank, the Israeli settlers control 95% of Palestinian land with military bases, 30 illegal settlements, and immense plantations, in violation of the Oslo accords.
The agriculatural activities of the settlements have led to the illegal confiscation of land and the diversion of Palestinian water resources. Palestinians are not allowed to extend their houses, dig wells, or transport their few agriculatural products to market. So, while their products rot at checkpoints, those of the settlements are freely exported to Europe.
The company has benefited from agricultural subsidies granted by the Israeli government to intensify colonisation of the Jordan valley, and has used them to increase production of fruit, flowers and vegetables, that are then sold in Europe, Latin America, Africa and East Asia.

80% of the Agrexco's products are exported to Europe, by way of France, Spain, and since last summer, also through Italia's Vado Ligure port in Savona. So, since 2009, Italy has become an essential link in the distribution of agricultural producs from Israeli settlements to Southern Europe.

Each of us can contribute to the construction of a different future for the Palestinian people, opposing Israeli violations of UN resolutions;

boycotting Carmel-Agrexco, Israeli exporter of products from illegal settlements.

protesting against the docking of the ships at the port of Vado.

Per further information about the StopAgrexco Italia campaign, write to savona@donneinnero.it

Report on Agrexco from Stop the Wall Campaign (Nov 2009)

Siti utili
http://www.boicottaisraele.it/
http://www.bdsmovement.org/
http://www.bigcampaign.org/
http://www.whoprofits.org/
http://www.coalitioncontreagrexco.com/

Break the Silence Break the Siege

2010-01-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

A year ago, we were out on the streets to show our indignation and our pain for the massacre caused by the Israeli military intervention - Operation Cast Lead - against the Gaza Strip, to call for a ceasefire, to bring an end to the siege and to guarantee the right of life of Gaza's population.

In 23 days of bombardment, more than 1,400 dead (one third were children) and more than 5000 palestinians injured. 13 Israelis dead (10 soldiers and 3 civilians). Thousands of homes, many schools, 20 mosques, the water and electricity supply networks destroyed; UN centres, hospitals and ambulances struck by the Israeli army. Tens of thousands left homeless.

A year has passed and the siege continues

You can't get into Gaza and you can't get out.
Amnesty International described the blockade of Gaza as a "form of collective punishment of the entire population, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention". The special UN rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, condemned the siege as "a crime against humanity". The consequences of the siege are undeniably causing a situation of mass suffering, created for the most part by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, in particular the United States and the European Union.

The illegal siege of Gaza isn't happening in a void. It is one of many illegal acts committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, militarily occupied in 1967.

Illegal:
The wall and the settlements
The demolition of houses
The indiscriminate destruction of agricultural land.
Closures and curfews
Roadblocks and checkpoints
La detenzione
Torture
The occupation itself.

The ending of the military occupation which began in 1967 is a fundamental condition for bringing abouot a just and lasting peace. For more than 60 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their right to freedom, to self-determination and to equality.

1400 people from 43 countries (the Gaza freedom March) tried in recent days to enter Gaza, to join with thousands of Palestinians in a non-violent march which would have gone from the north of the Strip to reach the border with Israel, calling for the end of the siege.

Egypt stopped them leaving Cairo, allowing only around 100 to enter Gaza. Hedy Epstein, 85 year old Jewish pacifist and Holocaust survivor, started a hunger strike in protest.

“It is important that the population of Gaza, under siege, know that they are not alone. I want to be able to say to the people of Gaza that I represent many people in my city and in the USA who are indignant about the policies adopted by Israel, the USA and Europe towards the Palestinians and that ever more people are coming to think in this way.”

said Ms Epstein, who escaped from the Nazi persecution while her parents died in Auschwitz.

Together with the participants in the Gaza Freedom March who demonstrated in the streets of Caior on January 1st, and with all those who at the same time marched in Israel and in the Gaza Strip, with those who protested in Ramallah, Bethlehem and in other West Bank cities, joining the protests organised in many cities throughout the world, we continue to draw attention to Gaza. We do not forget the tragic attack on the strip and we demand justice.

We call on politicians - local and national, on the government, on the European Union and the governments that are part of it to ensure respect for international law that has been trampled on. And to the leaders of Israel, we say:

End the siege of Gaza, stop the building of settlements in the West Bank, end the occupation, respect and apply the UN resolutions. That is the only way to peace.

Let Gaza Feel Italy's Solidarity

2009-12-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

The date of the Gaza Freedom March, 31st December 2009, is drawing near. The march is a historic initiative to break the siege that imprisons the one and a half million people who live in the Gaza Strip.

The march will bring together people from all over the world, hand in hand with the people of Gaza, to call on Israel to open the borders. More than 1,300 people from 42 countries - amoung them 140 from Italy - will take part in the march, carrying with them humitarian aid, solidarity and love for the people of Gaza.

On the first anniversary of the Israeli invasion that left more than 1,400 dead, this is a global response from ordinary people, to the inaction of their leaders and of the world's political institutions.

This year, we have seen:

Aid donated by people from all over the world blocked by the Israeli and Egyptian governments.
Gazan fishermen and farmers injured or even killed by the Israeli armed forces.
The ship of the Free Gaza movement attacked and hijacked by the Israeli navy.
The Goldstone report ignored by European governments and denigrated by the US congress.

But we have also seen the indignation of people for what happened in Gaza, the solidarity and the determination to do something, despite the inaction of their governments. We've seen aid convoys and delegations of activists struggle to enter Gaza, and we've seen them succeed.

No we must struggle to make the Gaza Freedom March succeed. On December 20th, the Egyptian authorities communicated their intention to not open the Rafah crossing to permit the participants of the march to enter Gaza.

Click here to send a message of support for the march to the Egyptian ambassador in Italy.

People are mobilising. The message is clear:

End the siege, end the occupation, respect for international law.

But Gaza needs concrete solidarity from all. Click here to find out how you can contribute.

Freedom for the Bi'lin Detainees

2009-12-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

Bil’in is a Palestinian village that wants to continue to exist, that fights to protect its land, its olive groves, its resources and its freedom.

The state of Israel, by annexing 60% of Bil'in's land to construct the separation wall, is destroying this village each day, confining its inhabitants to an open-air prison.

Every Friday, supported by Israeli and international activists, the inhabitants of Bil'in protest peacefully in front of the construction site of shame - and every Friday, the Israeli army respond with physical and moral violence.

The most recent attempt by the Israeli army to reduce Bil'in's non-violent resistence campaign to silence is a wave of nocturnal raids and the multiplication of arrests of demonstrators, in particular the leaders of the Bil'in Popular Committee. Since June 23 2009, 31 Bil'in residents have been arrested by the Israeli military.

People arrested in Bil'in since the start of the campaign of intimidation

24/06/2009: Mohammed Khalil Abu Rahma (23 years old)
24/06/2009: Moatassem Faisal Al-Khatib (17 years old)
26/06/2009: Khaleel Ibrahim (15 years old)
26/06/2009: Kamel Alkhateeb (15 years old)
29/06/2009: Emad Mahmoud Yassin (16 years old)
29/06/2009: Hosni Rasim al-Khatib (16 years old)
29/06/2009: Mohsen Kateb (16 years old)
29/06/2009: Hamoda Yaseen (16 years old)
30/06/2009: Suleiman Seif (17 years old)
5/07/2009: Oda Rebhe Abu Rahma (20 years old)
5/07/2009: Mahmoud Issa Yassein (17 years old)
7/07/2009: Abdel Muamer Majdi Abu Rahma
10/07/2009: Adeeb Abu Rahme
17/07/2009: Muhammed abde Fatah al Burnat (21 years old)
19/07/2009: Imad Burnat (37 years old)

3/08/2009: Khaled gut Show Alrazic Abd-al-Khatib (23 years old)
3/08/2009: Mustafa gut Show Alrazic Abd-al-Khatib (18 years old)
3/08/2009: Mohammed Abd-gut Show Alrazic Al-Khatib (16 years old)
3/08/2009: Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (18 years old)
3/08/2009: Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (16 years old)
3/08/2009: Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (40 years old)
3/08/2009: Mohammed Khatib (35 anni), freed 18/08/2009 on the condition of presenting himself at the Police station every Friday and staying there until 5pm, until his trial is over.
15/08/2009: Nashmi Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Rahma (14 years old)
20/08/2009: Mohammad Abu Rahma alias Abu Nizar (50 years old), Freed with a caution 23/08/2009
29/08/2009: Tofik Ashraf Mohammad Jamal Al-Khatib (29 years old)
29/08/2009: Hamru Hisham Bornat (24 years old)
1/09/2009: Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (19 years old)
25/09/2009: Haitham al Khatib (33 years old), Freed 25/09/2009. He was forced to sign a document promising not to go near the wall and he has been ordered to present himself at a judicial hearing within 6 months.
1/10/2009: Basel Mansour (32 years old), freed 8/10/2009 after paying a fine of 1000 shekels
19/11/2009 : Muhammad Yassin (19 years old)
3/12/2009 : Rani Najar (23 years old)
10/12/2009 : Abdallah Abu Rahma

The latest to be detained is the coordinator of the non-violent resistence movement of Bil'in Abdallah Abu Rahmah, arrested during the night of December 10th by Israeli soldiers.

At 2 in the morning, 7 Israeli military jeeps stopped near to the home of Abdallah Abu Rahmah in the city of Ramallah. The soldiers burst into the house and arrested Abu Rahmah in his bed, in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a school teacher at the Latin Patriarch school in Birzeit near to Ramallah and he is the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the wall and the settlements. In previous attempt to arrest Abu Rahmah, on September 15th, the Israeli army used such violence that a soldier was indicted.

What can you do?

Support the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and its efforts to free the detainees.

http://www.popularstruggle.org/freeabdallah#do

A simple man called Gandhi led the non-violent struggle in India and simple people like Rosa Parks led the struggle for civil rights in the USA, simple people here in Bil'in are carrying out a non-violent struggle that will bring them freedom. The example of South Africa demonstrates that injustice can be defeated.

Desmond Tutu

Israeli Lettres de Cachet

2009-12-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France with which a subject could be condemned to imprisonment without trial or the possibility of defense or appeal.

Lettres de cachet were abolished immediately after the French Revolution, but naturally such a useful practice was not completely abandoned. All the colonial powers used similar regulations. Administrative detention, still used today by the Israeli occupation forces in Palestine, is one of these regulations.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile..

Article 9 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Administrative detention is a form of detention without charge or trial, authorised by an administrative order rather than a judicial decree. An administrative detention order can be for a maximum period of six months, but there is no limit to the number of times it can be renewed. It was introduced in Palestine by the British authorities during the Mandate, and was used against both the indigenous population and the Jewish immigrants.

The Zionist jurist Dov Joseph, protesting against its use by the British authorities said:

Are we to be subjected to official terror? ... no citizen can be safe from life imprisonment without trial... it is not necessary to have committed any crime, a decision taken in some office is enough..

After the establishment of the state of Israel, the British Emergency Regulations, which included administrative detention, were incorporated into Israeli law and Dov Joseph, by then minister of justice, used them against the Palestinian population. Since then, administrative detention orders have struck children, women, young people, old people, intellectuals, students, political and trade union leaders, and in the last three years it has been the turn of elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since 2000, more than 19,000 administrative detention orders have been handed down.

Currently, more than 500 Palestinians are subject to administrative detention orders. The most recent detainee is Mohammed Othman. Mohammad was arrested by the Israeli authorities on 22nd September. He was returning to the West Bank from Norway where he had spoken at public meetings and met with government officials. Despite two months of detention, isolation, and lengthy interrogations, no charges were brought against him and finally the military authorities requested an administrative detention order.

Click here to send a mail to President Obama asking him to press for Mohammed's immediate release.

Click here for more information about the campaign against administrative detention.

Report on the arbitrary detention of Palestinians prepared by the Israeli human rights organisations B'tselem and Hamoked.

200910 Without Trial Eng

Vicenza matters to us

2009-11-13T08:21:00.001-08:00

On Saturday November 7th, Women in Black from Padua, Naples, Schio, Verona, Udine, Bologna, Ravenna, Milan, Turin and Alba were in the streets of Vicenza together with many women from the city, to declare their opposition to the construction of the new US military base, Dal Molin.

They went to Vicenza because the construction of the base and all that is revealed by the choices and actions of successive Italian governments concerning the base, is a problem that all of us must confront.

More photos

The stubborn fight by the citizens of Vicenza has brought more visibility to the secret agreements that impose not only the presence of foreign bases in Italy, but also the financial burden of maintaining them at the expense of Italian taxpayers. But it has also made visible, in an unmistakable way, the contempt of our political leaders for the opinions, the wishes and the rights of citizens. The citizens of Vicenza have seen their opinions discarded, their right to have a local referendum denied, the decision against the construction of the base by the local courts for the Veneto region set aside.

The exclusion of citizens from the decisions that concern military installations represents a serious threat to democracy in a country that already hosts 110 American bases.

American Bases in Italy

Cima Gallina [Bolzano]. US airforce telecommunications and radar station
Monte Paganella [Trento]. US airforce telecommunications station
Aviano [Pordenone]. US airforce largest advance base in Italy, nuclear weapons depot and telecommunications centre
Roveredo [Pordenone]. US weapons depot
Rivolto [Udine]. US airforce base
Maniago [Udine]. US airfoce firing range
San Bernardo [Udine]. US army ammunition depot
Trieste. US navy base
Camp Ederle [Vicenza]. Headquarters of the US Southern European task force
Vicenza: US army 173rd airbourne brigade
Tormeno [San Giovanni a Monte, Vicenza]. Military depot
Longare [Vicenza]. Military depot
Oderzo [Treviso]. Arms and ammunition depot
Codognè [Treviso]. Arms and ammunition depot
Istrana [Treviso]. US airforce base

Ciano [Treviso]. US telecommunications and radar centre
Verona. US airforce air operations centre and NATO southern European land forces base; US airforce telecommunications centre
Affi [Verona]. US telecommunications centre
Lunghezzano [Verona]. US radar centre
Erbezzo [Verona]. US national security agency antenna
Conselve [Padova]. US radar base
Monte Venda [Padova]. US telecommunications and radar antenna
Venice. US naval base
Sant'Anna di Alfaedo [Padova]. US radar centre
Lame di Concordia [Venezia]. US telecommunications and radar centre
San Gottardo, Boscomantivo [Venezia]. US telecommunications centre
Ceggia [Veggio]. US radar centre
Ghedi [Brescia]. US airforce base, communications station
Montichiari [Brescia]. US airforce base
Remondò [Pavia]. US army base
Solbiate Olona [Varese]. Rapid intervention base
Sorico [Como]. US national security agency antenna
Cameri [Novara]. US airforce base, with NATO coverage
Candelo-Masazza [Vercelli]. US airforce and army training centre with NATO coverage
La Spezia. Anti-submarine center

Finale Ligure [Savona]. US army telecommunications station

San Bartolomeo [Spezia]: Research centre for submarine warfare
Monte San Damiano [Piacenza]. US airforce base with NATO coverage
Monte Cimone [Modena]. US telecommunications centre with NATO coverage
Parma. US airforce depot with NATO coverage
Bologna. US State Department telecommunications centre
Rimini. US logistics group for the activation of nuclear bombs
Rimini-Miramare. US telecommunications centre
Potenza Picena [Macerata]. US radar centre with NATO coverage
Camp Darby [Pisa]. The largest Mediterranean logistics depot of the Southern European Task Force. Naval resupply base
Coltano [Pisa]. Important US telecommunications base. US army ammunition depot
Pisa [military airport]. US airforce base (intermittent)
Talamone [Grosseto]. US navy base (intermittent)
Poggio Ballone [Grosseto]. US radar centre with NATO coverage
Livorno. US naval base
Monte Limbara [Sassari]. US missile base
Sinis di Cabras [Oristano]. US national security agency data centre.
Isola di Tavolara [Sassari]. US navy radio-telegraph station for submarine support
Torre Grande di Oristano. US national security agency radar base
Monte Arci [Oristano]. US telecommunications centre with NATO coverage.
Capo Frasca [Oristano]. US heliport and radar installation
Santulussurgiu [Oristano]. US airforce telecommunications station with NATO coverage
Perdasdefogu [Nuoro]. Experimental missile base
Capo Teulada [Cagliari]. Firing range for aerial and naval exercises of the US Sixth Fleet and NATO
Cagliari. US naval base
Decimomannu [Cagliari]. US military airport with NATO coverage/span>
Elmas airport [Cagliari]. US airforce base
Salto di Quirra [Cagliari]. Missile firing range
Capo San Lorenzo [Cagliari]. Training area for the US Sixth Fleet
Monte Urpino [Cagliari]. US and NATO ammunition depot
Rome. NATO command for the central Mediterranean and centre for US interforces logistics coordination
Rome Ciampino [military airport. US airforce base (intermittent)
Rocca di Papa [Roma]. US telecommunication centre with NATO coverage
Monte Romano [Viterbo]. US army firing range (intermittent)
Gaeta [Latina]. Permanent base of the Sixth Fleet and of the naval escort squadron for the aircraft carrier "La Salle"
Casale delle Palme [Latina]. NATO school of telecommunications under US control
Naples. US marines security force command. US submarine base. US airforce mediterranean command.
Capodichino Airport [Naples]. US airforce base
Monte Camaldoli [Naples]. US telecommunications base
Ischia [Naples]. US telecommunications antenna with NATO coverage
Nisida [Naples]. US army base
Bagnoli [Naples]. The largest coordination centre for the US navy including all telecommunications activity, command and control of the Mediterranean
Agnano [Naples]. US army base
Licola [Naples]. US telecommunications antenna
Lago Patria [Caserta]. US telecommunications station
Giugliano [Naple]. Statcom command
Grazzanise [Caserta]. US airforce base (intermittent)
Mondragone [Caserta]: US and NATo underground anti-atomic command centre, where the US and NATO commands would be situated in case of war
Montevergine [Avellino]: US communications centre
Cirigliano [Matera]. US command for naval forces in Europe
Pietraficcata [Matera]. US and NATO telecommunications centre
Gioia del Colle [Bari]. US airforce technical support base
Brindisi. US navy base
Punta della Contessa [Brindisi]. US and NATO firing range
San Vito dei Normanni [Brindisi]. Secret Services base. Electronics Security Group [US national security ageny]
Monte Iacotenente [Foggia]. NADGE (NATO military radar network) base
Otranto. US radar station
Taranto. US navy base. US and NATO depot
Martinafranca [Taranto]. US radar base
Crotone. US and NATO telecommunications base
Monte Mancuso [Catanzaro]. US telecommunications centre
Sellia Marina [Catanzaro]. US telecommunications centre with NATO coverage
Sigonella [Catania]. Main land base of the US navy in the central Mediterranean, logistical support centre for the Sixth Fleet
Motta S. Anastasia [Catania]. US telecommunications centre
Caltagirone [Catanzaro]. US telecommunications centre
Palermo Punta Raisi [airport]. US airforce base (intermittent)
Isola delle Femmine [Palermo]. US and NATO ammunition depot.
Marina di Marza [Ragusa]. US telecommunications centre
Augusta [Siracusa]. Base of the Sixth Fleet and ammunition depot
Monte Lauro [Siracusa]. US telecommunications centre
Centuripe [Enna]. US telecommunications centre
Niscemi [Caltanissetta]. Base of NavComTelSta [US navy communications]
Trapani. US airforce base with NATO coverage
Isola di Pantelleria [Trapani]: US navy telecommunications centre and NATO radar centre
Isola di Lampedusa [Agrigento]: US coast guard base. Listening post and communications centre

We're told that all this is done for our security.

But to feel secure we need, in the first place, respect and recognition of our freedom, dignity and self-determination. In second place, it's necessary to build relationships that are driven by mutual recognition, living together and solidarity and to recognise the rights of citizens to participate in choices that concern their own land.

Demilitarise our environment and our lives

2009-11-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

November 4th is National Unity Day and Armed Forces Day, instituted by the fascist regime in the 1920s to celebrate the "victory" in the First World War. What victory for the 650,000 dead and the 1,000,000 mutilated and injured? It was good business for the big industrialists, for corrupt politicians, for unscrupulous state officials, high-ranking officers with their hands in the till. War profiteers made such scandalous profits that a parliamentary commission of enquiry was set up.

Every year, in every city, the civil, military, and religious authorities unite to provide legitimacy for armies and wars and to draw the veil of rhetoric over the reality of “a useless slaughter”.

We want to reaffirm our NO to that and to all useless slaughters that continue to stain the world with blood.

"Don't believe in the soldiers' acts of valour, don't be taken in by the other fabrications in the newspapers. They are lies. They don't fight with pride, no, nor with ardour. They go to the slaughter because they are led to it and because they fear the firing squad.
If they could get their hands on the head of the government, or rather of the brigands, they would tear him apart".

(B.N. 25 year old soldier; condemned to 4 years in prison for writing a denigratory letter 1916)

“Italy repudiates war” states our constitution, but repudiating war means not only not making war, but also not building, selling, or buying instruments of war: neither bases or armaments. The production and the trade in arms, the construction and maintenance of military base - all of this is a problem we need to solve, as citizens who are not resigned to the choice of war, who take on the responsibility of building the fair society, based on peace and solidarity, prefigured by the constitution.

We think that the use of violence and the culture of armaments are the most absurd, the stupidest, the cruelest activity that man ever undertook during the course of history.

To confront the ever more serious problems of our times, we don't need more bases, more soldiers, more armaments. We need co-responsibility, civil solidarity, far from the logic of militarism and power.

We don't want to be complicit in militarism, wherever it shows itself, and particularly not in our own country with its concession of the Dal Molin airport for the construction of another US military base, the growing militarisation of the Campania region(the port of Naples, the military bases, the armaments factories, the militarised rubbish disposal areas...), the storage depot of nuclear weapons at Aviano, the continual growth in military spending, the building of the F35 fighter-bombers, the participation in military operations, disguised as peace-keeping missions...

The militarisation of or country doesn't provide us with security, it takes away our security and freedom. To feel secure we need respect and the recognition of our freedom, dignity and self-determination.

For this reason, on November 7th we will be on the streets of Vicenza to declare our opposition to the construction of the new Dal Molin base.

We invite all women who refuse the logic of war to join us.

Donne in Nero
Padova 4 november 2009

Gaza Freedom March

2009-10-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action!

The Gaza Freedom March, organised by the International Coalition for the End of the Illegal Siege of Gaza, 27 December 2009 to the 2 January 2010

In the days that mark the first anniversary of the Israeli assault and massacre in Gaza, hundreds of international activists will attempt to break the siege to participate in a nonviolent demonstration, marching alongside the population of Gaza on 31 December 2009.

The Gaza Freedom March will be a demonstration of solidarity which also aims to refocus attention of the humanitarian crisis and on the illegality of the siege, calling on the International Community to put an end to it.

Amnesty International has called the Gaza blockade a "form of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention." Human Rights Watch has called the blockade a "serious violation of international law." The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, condemned Israel’s siege of Gaza as amounting to a “crime against humanity.”

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza are being treated "like animals," and has called for "ending of the siege of Gaza" that is depriving "one and a half million people of the necessities of life."

One of the world's leading authorities on Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University, has said that the consequence of the siege "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."

Appeal of the Internazional Coalition for the End of the Illegal Siege of Gaza

Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law that has led to mass suffering. The U.S., the European Union, and the rest of the international community are complicit.

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action! On Dec. 31, we will end the year by marching alongside the Palestinian people of Gaza in a non-violent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.

Our purpose in this March is lifting the siege on Gaza. We demand that Israel end the blockade. We also call upon Egypt to open Gaza’s Rafah border. Palestinians must have freedom to travel for study, work, and much-needed medical treatment and to receive visitors from abroad.

As an international coalition we are not in a position to advocate a specific political solution to this conflict. Yet our faith in our common humanity leads us to call on all parties to respect and uphold international law and fundamental human rights to bring an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 and pursue a just and lasting peace.

The march can only succeed if it arouses the conscience of humanity.

We invite you all to join us

Last month, the UN Human Rights Council approved the Goldstone Report on the violations of international law and crimes against humanity committed durign the Israeli "Cast Lead" offensive. Not a single member state of the EU voted in favour. Italy followed the USA to vote against.

This complicity isn't surprising. As Israeli President Shimon Peres said, criticising British universal jurisdiction leglislation for war crimes: "Great Britain and the United States used similar tactics in their operations in Iraq and Afganistan." So, since our governments are also involved in war crimes, we can't wait for them to act against other criminals. We must act.

Join the Gaza Freedom March! For further information...

Against all racism - we reject the politics of oppression and exploitation

2009-10-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Republic recognises and guarantees the inviolable rights of the person, whether as an individual or within the social groups where the human personality is expressed

Article 2, Constitution of the Italian Republic

Italy, land of emigrants in times not so long past has become a place of immigration - though in smaller measure than in other European countries, the presence of foreigners has become consistent.

So, in our daily relationships - family, school, work, trade - we meet people from a different background, with different cultures and concerns. We didn't immediately realise, but our life has changed: we learn languages and far-away places, and for those who understand the value of diversity, these new experiences enrich us greatly.

For the economy, people who have immigrated support important sectors: construction, agriculture, family and we all know that without their contribution there would be economic and social collapse.

These people - immigrants - from different origins but with the same humanity, should have been welcomed to a society in evolution, respectful of the rights of all, but that isn't what happened. The economically powerful used them as cheap labour, in the black economy, at times forcing them into conditions of slavery. The Italian government used women and men from the immigrant communities to offload the responsibility for the current conditions that are difficult for all, building up fear and hostility in citizens, and then imposing emergency laws that limit the freedom of us all.

For some time, we have been witnessing a veritable turn towards racism. Today, in Italy, racism is spreading because those who practise it find support in the xenophobic policies of the Berlusconi government, which , with the approval of the Security Law (DDL 733), has without ambiguity taken the path of incitement to hatred against "the foreigner", "the different".

There are dynamics, fed by the strong impact of the platform of extreme right-wing parties on government policies and on the public perception. The media also manipulates and legitimises racism and xenophobia, exploting the multicultural process that the Italian society is experiencing.

Doudou Diène, special rapporteur of the UN in his report on the situation in Italy with respect to the phenomena of racism, social discrimination and xenophobia.

The growing incidence of discrimination and violation of fundamental human rights against the immigrant population in the country is evident. We note that racism and xenophobia persist in attitudes towards immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including the Rom. We call on the government to intervene effectively to combat the climate of intollerance and to guarantee protection to migrants whatever their status may be.

From the report of the International Labour Organisation, 2009

The turning back of immigrants, as it is being effected today in the Mediterranean, is not in line with Italian law, since Italian law, though it does indeed provide for expulsion but with some guarantees: the person must be identified, must receive an expulsion order and can appeal. Turning back of immigrants on the seas is indiscriminate and collective, and calls into question the right to asylum.

Laura Boldrini, spokeksperson for the Italian section of the UN High Commission for Refugees.

The measures and the proposals that have been adopted attack the most elementary human rightsand are a list of barbarities:

The crime of clandestinity, which makes a crime of a condition of life that is linked to a particular mement in the existence of a migrant, is a dangerous step towards the normalisation of social inequalities and towards the legalisation of racism.
The policy of expulsion and the criminal agreements with Lybia cause veritable slaughters of innocents
The facility for the public health services to denounce illegal immigrants is completely contrary to the ethical code of doctors and to the constitution (art. 32: “The Republic safeguards the health as a fundamental right of the individual and as being in the interest of the collectivity and guarantees free care to the poor. ”)
The registration of those without fixed address, a first step towards the discrimination of a sector of the population that evokes memories of the horrors of the fascist and Nazi past.
The institution of the CIE (Centre of Identification and Expulsion) in Lampedusa;
The instituion of vigilante patrols, which ferment a climate of suspicion and are contrary to the right of all to be protected with the instruments at the disposition of the democratic institutions.

As Women in Black, we reject these racist measures as fatal to our freedom and we refuse:

the ideology of intolerance
xenophobia and racism
The politics of exclusion of the "other" that transforms others into enemies
The violence contained in any law and in any attitude that denies the humanity of the "other",
The "security scam" that not only threatens our freedom and our lives, but also masks the real causes of social insecurity, traceable to the logic of the neoliberal system, which makes work precarious, increases poverty, destroys the social state, makes it impossible to plan for the future

We will not obey laws in which we do not recognise ourselves because they violate the most elementary human rights.

Freedom for Mohammed Othman

2009-10-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

More than three weeks ago, Palestinian activist Mohammad Othman was arrested, when he reentered the West Bank after a visit to Norway. Mohammad, who is active in the nonviolent movement against the Apartheid Wall and in the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment campaign (BDS), is still in detention, in solitary confinement. He still doesn't know why he has been arrested!

On Monday, 19 October he appeared before a military tribunal without even being informed of the charges against him. The judge extended his detention for another 11 days. Since then he has appeared before the tribunal again, and once again the detention has been extended though no charges have been brought.

In solidarity with the international appeal "If you want to stop the BDS movement, you'll have to arrest us all!" launched by Stop the Wall following Mohammed's arrest, we are sending an avalanche of mails demanding his immediate and unconditional release !

Click here to send a mail.

Mohammed comes from the villager of Jayyus in the West Bank. Jayyus has been devastated by the building of the Apartheid Wall and by the Zufim settlement, and it is one of the principle villages involved in the nonviolent popular movement against the wall, started four years ago in the village of Bi'lin. He's not the only activist from the popular nonviolent movement to be detained. Dozens of Palestinians from Bi'lin, Ni'lin are Jayyus are being held in Israeli prisons, many taken from their beds during night raids by Israeli soldiers, their faces covered by masks.

The response of the Israeli armed forces to the weekly protests in the villages has been brutal repression: unarmed civilians have to confront soldiers armed with firearms and with new experimental weapons.

In his Cairo speech, President Obama told the Palestinians to renounce violence. Unfortunately, he didn't direct the same words to the Israeli government and nor did he recognise the nonviolent struggle in the Palestinian villages.

In the last four years, 16 people have been killed and more than 1500 wounded, some seriously.

Let's give a future to the Palestinian popular resistance and to the nonviolent option for ending the occupation!

For more information about Israeli repression of the popular nonviolent movement, read the report Repression Allowed. Resistance Denied.
Repress

President Obama, support the recommendations of the Goldstone report on Gaza

2009-10-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Open letter from Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.

Dear President Obama,

Our wounds in Gaza are still open, our justice still denied. Israel's 23 day offensive (28 December 2008- 19 January 2009) has left our children afraid to return to school, and feeling unsafe in their beds.

The war, and the continued closure of the Gaza Strip, has undermined the capacity of mothers and fathers to act as protectors and providers. As a community, we will struggle for decades to live with the consequences. Along with our children we feel that justice has been too long abandoned.

For many reasons we Palestinians have felt that the world has ignored us. The international attention following the war on Gaza gave us hope. The investigation led by Justice Goldstone was a cause for optimism. We felt that this respected judge and prosecutor - who has served at the highest level and consistently demonstrated his independence in upholding the rule of law - was one of the few people who had the credentials and experience to take on this legally complex and politically charged mission. We came to believe that the world actually cared.

The statement of your ambassador to the UN, Ms. Susan Rice, sent a different message: that the world, or at least the United States, does not care.

Ms. Rice suggested that the focus should be on the future and not the past and that the task at hand must be to cement progress towards the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

This separation of justice and peace is misguided; the two are intertwined. If there is one thing that history teaches us, it is that when the powerful are allowed to escape accountability, they will continue to violate the law, and innocent people will pay the price.

In Cairo you said that "America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own." You also spoke of the desire for the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, stating that these "are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere". These were welcome words, but they demand action. Accountability and criminal responsibility are fundamental components of justice. All those responsible must face trial; victims' rights must be upheld; suffering cannot be ignored.

President Obama, as you once said quoting Dr. Martin Luther King: `

'the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own unless each and every one of us puts our hands on the arc.' '.

Support the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission.

The report of the mission led by Richard Goldstone includes these conclusions:

The Israeli forces committed human rights violations and violations of humanitarian law that correspond to war crimes and, in some cases, to crimes against humanity. In particular, the investigations into the numerous attacks on the civilian population and civilian targets have revealed that these were intentional and that some were launched with the objective of spreading terror among the civilian population and without any justifiable military objective. Moreover, the Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields;

Israeli forces committed grave violations of the IV Geneva Convention, in particular carrying out killings, torture and inhuman treatment, deliberately provoking great suffering and serious physical injury and damage to health, causing enormous destruction of property, not justified by military necessity, in an illegal and reckless manner. For these actions, individual responsibility must be established;

Israel violated the obligation to respect the right of the population of Gaza to an adequate standard of life, that includes access to food, water and adequate shelter. The report refers in particular to actions that deprived the inhabitants of Gaza of sustenance, of work, of housing, of water, as well as the freedom of movement and the right to enter and leave their own country, and finally to have limited access to effective help. The combination of these actions could amount to the crime of persecution, which is a crime against humanity;

Palestinian armed groups violated the principle of distinction by launching rockets and mortars that could not be directed with sufficient precision against military objectives. These attacks, against civilian settlements that in no way could be considered military objectives constitute deliberate attacks on civilians and as such are war crimes and in some cases could amount to crimes against humanity.

Palestinian armed groups have not always acted in such as way as to distinguish themselves from the civilian population and so have exposed the latter to needless risks, launching rockets from places situated near to civilian housing or protected buildings.

There is no evidence to support the accusations that Palestinian armed groups transferred the civilian population to zones that were under Israeli attack or that they forced them to remain there, nor is there evidence that hospitals were used by the de facto Hamas administration or by Palestinian armed groups to conceal military activity or that ambulances were used to transport combatants or that Palestinian armed groups took part in military activities inside hospitals or UN structures that were used as shelters.

>To read the full report, click here

>To read the executive summary, click here.

We are all Honduran Women in Resistance

2009-10-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Since the first day of the military coup, 29th June 2009, the media policy of the coup regime has been to try to present the image of absolute normality. The enormous protest marches are a simple expression of some lunatics who have lost contact with reality.

Following the international condemnation, the principal media have abandoned the country. The continuing mobilisations by social, popular, and trade union organisations aren't news. The international community seems unwilling to pass from words and proclamations to concrete facts. It remains tied to a mediation process that has no future, that depends on the ambiguity of the US government and that is part of the process of normalisation of the coup.
The international silence has opened the doors to a harsh repression against the popular organisation that continue to demand the restoration of constitutional order, and as always it is the women who are most vulnerable. Women involved in the resistence are subjected to sexual violence and insults.

But the protests have continued, and the response has been ever harsher repression. On 22nd September, Feminists in Resistance, who have taken an active part in the resistance from the first day, have published this appeal. :

By this means Feministas en Resistencia denounce the brutal repression that has been committed today against the people who had peacefully gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, on learning that President Manuel Zelaya had taken refuge there.

The people were attacked in the early morning hours with hot gases, water and a device that emits a deafening noise. Some people were injured and had to be taken to hospital.

Yesterday the de facto government declared a nationwide curfew beginning at 4:00 pm, when most of the Honduran workers are still at their jobs. The curfew lasted until today at 7:00 am. In the meantime, the government announced a new curfew from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. of today.

We want to inform as widely as possible that we fear for our lives due to the steady and progressive aggression shown by the army against the people that demand the restoration of the constitutional order.

In recent days, the situation in Honduras has worsened. On September 28 a decree was enacted that permits arrests and searches without charges or warrants, and which abrogates the rights of freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.

Canale 36 and Radio Globo were closed down on 29th after the de facto governent issued a decree suspending 6 articles of the constitution for a period of 45 days. The two stations were invaded by the armed forces and police at 5.30am. Files and equipment were seized from Radio Globo. Canale 36 was surrounded by the army and transmissions were blocked. Some journalists had to escape through the windows.

The decree authorises the closure of "any media that threatens peace and public order" or that "attacks the human dignity of public officials or decisions of the government.” It calls for the arrest of "persons considered suspect" adding that they must be taken to "legally established detention centres"

It is said that the government has ordered the arrest of activists and their detention in the stadium.

Hundreds of soldiers dispersed a demonstration at the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogic University, where hundreds of people had gathered to march towards the Brazilian embassy. Soldiers were deployed in key points of Tegucigalpa and in the entire country to stop people attempting to go to the demonstration.

For further information: Ni Golpe de Estado, Ni Golpes Contra Las Mujeres

Blessed the world that has no more need for heroes

2009-09-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

The demonstration for the freedom of information was postponed so that it wouldn't clash with the national day of mourning for the Italian soldiers killed in Kabul.

For us, this decision was mistaken and dishonest. We gave our support to the demonstration because we believe that freedom on information is a vital factor in the struggle against war and violence and in the struggle for women's rights - struggles that cannot be separated.

I am very sorry to see governments putting the lives of their soldiers in danger in Afghanistan in the name of bringing democracy. In fact the soldiers are serving the strategic and regional interests of the White House and the consequences of their occupation so far have been devastating for my people.

Malalai Joya

If we really believe in the importance of the freedom of information, it should be clear that the lack of serious information about the motives and consequences of the military mission in Afghanistan has played an important role in the killing of the six Italian soldiers.

To stand back and remain silent as the tragedy that has struck these men and their loved ones is manipulated by those who sent them to their deaths is not a sign of respect - quite the contrary.

So, despite the rain the decision of many to postpone the demonstation, the Women in Black of Bergamo kept the appointment, dressed in black for the sorrow we feel for wars, for every war.

If the media provided news and documentation about the motives for each war, perhaps there would be more peace.

We also offer are solidarity to Simonetta Salacone, headteacher of the Iqbal Massih school in Rome, who refused to participate in another manipulation - the minute silence for the fallen in Afghanistan. Simonetta Salacone explained her decision with clarity and eloquence:

Click the text to read the complete letter.

I feel sorrow and sincere participation in the sorrow of the families of the dead soldiers. I add it to the sorrow that I feel each day for so many innocent civilian victims of this and and all wars that are being waged around the world. But I ask myself: why didn't we have a minute silence last month, when a soldier from Campobasso was killed in Afghanistan?

Is it the number that forms a critical mass for state mourning? Or could it be the moment in which, by appealing to the sorrow of so many, one attempts to realign a public opinion that is very divided on the theme of the so-called peace missions. ”?

War in Afghanistan - an alliance with murderers and rapists

2009-09-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

One of the most quoted "benefits" of the NATO intervention is to have improved the condition of Afghan women, but Malalai Joya doesn't agree : "Just as air raids haven't brought security to Afghanis, the occupation hasn't brought security to Afghan women. The reality is exactly the opposite. The now infamous family law is only the point of the iceberg of the catastrophe that has struck women's rights in our country, under occupation. The entire system, in particular the judiciary, is infected by the virus of fundamentalism and so, in Afghanistan, men who commit crimes against women can do so with impunity".

Western soldiers fight the Taliban, causing "collateral damage" among the civilian population, while western governments also have their victims of collateral damage. The civil rights of the Afghan people, but above all, the rights of women, are sacrificed to preserve alliances with fundamentalists and warlords who might bring a superficial stability that will allow our governments to promote their own interests but which will not bring peace or security to the Afghan people.

Shortly after the elections of 20 August, , Malalai Joya wrote:

Like millions of Afghans, I have no hope in the results of the elections. In a country ruled by warlords, occupation forces, Taliban terrorists, drug money and guns, no one can expect a legitimate or fair vote. Even international observers have been speaking about widespread fraud and intimidation and, among the people on the street, there is a common refrain: the real winner has already been picked by the White House.

President Hamid Karzai has cemented alliances with brutal warlords and fundamentalists in order to maintain his position. Although our constitution forbids war criminals from running for office, the incumbent has named two notorious militia commanders as his vice-presidential running mates – Karim Khalili and Mohammad Qasim Fahim, both of whom stand accused of brutalities against our people.

Deals have also been made with countless fundamentalists. This week saw the return from exile of the dreaded warlord Rashid Dostum. And the pro-Iranian extremist Mohammad Mohaqiq, who has been accused of war crimes, has been promised five cabinet positions for his party in exchange for supporting Mr Karzai.

Rather than democracy, what we have in Afghanistan are back-room deals among discredited warlords who are sworn enemies of democracy and justice.

The President has also continued to absolutely betray the women of Afghanistan.

Even after massive international outcry – and brave protesters taking to the streets of Kabul – Mr Karzai implemented the infamous rape law, targeting Shia women, to gain support of the fundamentalist elements in the election. He had initially promised to review the most egregious clauses, but in the end it was passed with few amendments and the barbaric anti-women statements not removed. As Human Rights Watch recently stated: "Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists."

And the two main challengers to a continuation of the Karzai rule do not offer any change. Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are both former cabinet ministers in this discredited regime and neither has a real, broad footing among the people.

We Afghans know that this election will change nothing and it is only part of a show of democracy put on by, and for, the West, to legitimise its future puppet in Afghanistan. It seems we are doomed to see the continuation of this failed, mafia-like, corrupt government for another term.

Democracy will never come to Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun, or from the cluster bombs dropped by foreign forces. The struggle will be long and difficult, but the values of real democracy, human rights and women's rights will only be won by the Afghan people themselves.

The Western governments that claim to be bringing democracy to Afghanistan ignore public opinion in their own countries, where growing numbers are against the war.

In my tours to countries that have troops in Afghanistan, I've met many bereaved parents who have lost their loved ones in the war in my home. I am very sorry to see governments putting the lives of their soldiers in danger in Afghanistan in the name of bringing democracy. In fact the soldiers are serving the strategic and regional interests of the White House and the consequences of their occupation so far have been devastating for my people.

I believe that if the ordinary folk of Afghanistan and the Nato countries were able to vote, and express their wishes, this indefinite military occupation would come to an end and there would be a real chance for peace in Afghanistan.

Stop Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem

2009-08-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 2nd August at dawn, Israeli forces evicted two families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem - yet another example of the policy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories and in particular in East Jerusalem.

The following appeal against the evictions of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah and from other East Jerusalem neighbourhoods will be sent to the press and to diplomatic representatives in Israel/Palestine.

STOP THE EVICTIONS OF PALESTINIANS FROM EAST JERUSALEM

On Sunday 2nd August, the eviction order against two Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, was executed. In the early hours of the morning, soldiers of the IDF forced the al Ghawi and al Hanoun families, refugees since 1948, to leave their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, where they have been living since 1956. Israeli settlers have already taken their places in the houses.

“I deplore today's totally unacceptable actions by Israel, in which Israeli security forces evicted Palestinian refugee families registered with UNRWA from their homes in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem to allow settlers to take possession of these properties. These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory. The United Nations rejects Israel's claims that this is a matter for municipal authorities and domestic courts. I call on Israel to adhere to international law and to cease and reverse such provocative and unacceptable actions in East Jerusalem"

Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Peace Process.

We are appalled by the evictions in East Jerusalem this morning. Israel’s claim that the imposition of extremist Jewish settlers into this ancient Arab neighborhood is a matter for the court or the municipality is unacceptable. Their actions are incompatible with Israel’s professed desire for peace.

British Consulate Jerusalem.

For weeks, the presence of international and Israeli citizens and of Palestinian human rights activists has sustained the determination of the families to not leave their homes, to not become victims the Israeli state's policy of ethnic cleansing.

According to international law, East Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian Territories, occupied by Israel in 1967, and the International Community is obliged to enforce respect for UN resolutions which prohibit the transfer of populations and any other actions that change the status quo of the city.(cf. Geneva Conventions (1949) and UN resolutions 242 (1967), 252 (1968), 267 and 271 (1969), 298 (1971), 465, 476, 478 (1980)).

The situation of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem is becoming more and more unsustainable because of the discriminatory policies of the occupying government which aims to Judaise the city of Jerusalem, creating territorial continuity with the illegal Israeli settlements that surround East Jerusalem.

Since 1967 to the present day, 17 settlements have been built occupying 35% of the territory of East Jerusalem and housing 200,000 settlers. OCHA (Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs www.ochaopt.org/) reports that between 1967 and 2006 more than 8500 Palestinian houses have been demolished. In the first four months of 2009, OCHA recorded the demolition of 19 structures in East Jerusalem, including 11 residences, resulting in the displacement of 109 Palestinians including 60 children.

The direct consequences on Palestinian society of such actions by the Israeli government are the territorial fragmentation of the different East Jerusalem neighbourhoods and the isolation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, creating de facto conditions for Jerusalem to be the "eternal capital of the State of Israel" in violation of international law and the UN resolutions.

The only possible defense of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem is the support of the international community, who alone can put pressure on the Israeli government to immediately revoke the eviction orders against Palestinians in East Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah, Old City, Silwan, Bustan, Ras al Amud) and to halt the plans for the construction of new settlements in Jerusalem.

The al Ghawi, al Hanoun and al Kurd families - the last of these evicted from their home in November 2008, are only the first of the 28 families (500 people) residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood , who risk eviction.

The new US administration and the European Union have condemned the confiscation and demolition of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem and the construction of new settlements. Therefore, we call on the Italian government and its diplomatic representative in Jerusalem, the Italian General Consulate to severely condemn the evictions of the al Ghawi and al Hanoun families, and to urge the Israeli government to cancel the eviction orders so that the families can return home, to cancel other eviction orders and to stop the plans for settlement building in East Jerusalem in accordance with international law.

As Italian citizens, we ask the Italian Consulate in Jerusalem to visit the al Ghawi, al Hanoun and al Kurd families and to deliver a message of solidarity and support, as has already been done by other European and US diplomatic representatives.

Gaza - a descent into misery and desperation

2009-07-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross has described the situation in the Gaza Strip as "1.5 million people trapped in despair". The Italians NGOs that are working in the Gaza Strip have also called for a change in international politics to confront the political and humanitarian emergency.

From the Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Over the last two years, the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have been caught up in an unending cycle of deprivation and despair as a result of the conflict, and particularly as a direct consequence of the closure of the crossing points.

The ICRC has repeatedly pointed out that Israel’s right to address its legitimate security concerns must be balanced against the right of the population in Gaza to lead a normal and dignified life. Under international humanitarian law, Israel has the obligation to ensure that the population's basic needs in terms of food, shelter, water and medical supplies are met.

The ICRC once again appeals for a lifting of restrictions on the movement of people and goods as the first and most urgent measure to end Gaza's isolation and to allow its people to rebuild their lives.

The almost 4.5 billion dollars that donor countries pledged for reconstruction at an international summit in Egypt in March 2009 will be of little use if building materials
and other essential items cannot be imported into the Gaza Strip.
In any case, reconstruction alone does not offer a sustainable means of getting Gaza back on its feet. To go back to the situation prior to the latest military operation would be unacceptable, as that would only perpetuate Gaza’s plight.

A lasting solution requires fundamental changes in Israeli policy, such as allowing imports and exports to and from Gaza, increasing the flow of goods and people up to the level of May 2007, allowing farmers to access their land in the de-facto buffer zone and restoring fishermen's access to deeper waters.

Humanitarian action can be no substitute for the credible political steps that are needed to bring about these changes. Only an honest and courageous political process involving all States, political authorities and organized armed groups concerned can address the plight of Gaza and restore a dignified life to its people.

The alternative is a further descent into misery with every passing day.

Many children were witnesses to
violence and now are traumatised

The shocking level of poverty is
directly linked to the closure.
The situation has become so severe
that even if the crossings opened
tomorrow, it would take years to recover.

Khalili can't rebuild his house
because the blockade of the Strip
does not permit building materials
to be brought in.

The Israeli navy only allows
Gazan fishermen to go 3 nautical miles
from the coast. This means that fish is
almost always scarce.

Gaza appeal by Italian NGOs

Six Months After the Israeli Military Operation "Cast Lead" Nothing Has Changed in Gaza

Jerusalem, 22 July 2009

The Italian non-governmental organisations working for the promotion and protection of the rights of the Palestinian people repeat the appeal promoted by a coalition of humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam International, Care West Bank and Gaza, War Child Holland and Medical Aid for Palestinians UK, in which they called on the international community and in particular the European Union to employ greater efforts to respond in concrete form to the needs of the population of Gaza, affected by the latest Israeli military offensive.

Six months have passed since the end of the Israeli military attack on Gaza and hundreds of thousands of people still have no house and no access to basic services such as clean water. The economy, including the agricultural sector is at the point of collapse and reconstruction seems an impossible undertaking. Operation Cast Lead destroyed the economic fabric, already weakened by the embargo imposed by the Israeli government.

There is no sense in continuing to deprive people of the chance of working and of supporting their families. The border crossings must be opened immediately to facilitate the restarting of economic activities in the shortest time possible.

Rebuilding is currently greatly limited by the embargo on the entry of cement and steel imposed by the Israeli government. This means that 20,000 families, whose homes were razed to the ground or severely damaged during the last conflict cannot restart a normal life. Many are forced to live in refugee camps or in improvised, precarious shelters. In addition, almost 35,000 people do not have access to clean water or a working sewage system. The rebuilding of schools, hospitals, universities and of the public infrastructure has not yet begun. Food and medicines pass, at irregular intervals, only by way of the Kerem Shalom crossing and many medicinal supplies are about to expire.

No step forward has been made by the international community to guarantee the entry into Gaza of aid and construction materials. The moment has arrived for world leaders to take concrete actions to put pressure on the Israeli government to open the crossings and to guarantee the entry of aid and construction materials. The restrictions and prohibitions imposed by Israel are measures that violate the human rights of the civilian population of Gaza. All this in unacceptable.

Therefore we appeal to the European Union to:

Freeze the upgrading to the agreement of association between the EU and Israel, an agreement that has the requirement for Israel to respect “the principles of the United Nations Charter , in particular, the respect for human rights, democratic principles and economic freedom” (“EUROMEDITERRANEAN AGREEMENT” – Preamble);
Make every diplomatic effort needed to guarantee full respect for international law keeping faith with the pledges made for the relaunch of the process of reconstruction of Gaza.

We also call on the Italian government, that has set aside 4 million Euro for emergency aid to the population of Gaza, to put the necessary pressure on the Israeli government to guarantee the opening of the border crossings and the passage of goods needed for the activities of reconstruction and rehabilitation financed by such funds. As the agencies of the United Nations affirm in their reports, the improvement of the conditions for the populations of the Gaza Strip is not possible without the opening of border crossings that allow the passage of necessary materials such as cement, and the restarting of commercial and productive activities.

Signatories.
ACS
CISP
CISS
COSPE
CRIC
CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE CROCEVIA
DISVI
EDUCAID
MEDINA
OVERSEAS
TERRE DES HOMMES - ITALIA
VIS

Solidarity with the mourning mothers of Iran

2009-07-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

In response to the appeal of Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace laureate, we express our solidarity to the Iranian mothers and to all women who, in Iran and elsewhere in the world, even at risk to their own lives, go out on to the streets to demand justice and truth, so that silence does not fall on the victims of repression and power that uses force of arms to silence those who struggle for their rights.

While we extend our solidarity to the Iranian mothers, we also raise our voices so that their suffering will not be used to justify military "solutions" to the crisis in Iran, as the repression of Afghan women was used to justify the war begun in 2001 and continuing today.

Message of Shirin Ebadi to the women of the world, calling for solidarity with the mourning mothers of Iran.

Conscientious women of the world:
The tragedy in Iran is much larger than we had imagined. People who took to the streets to express their objection to the election results peacefully were met with bullets and truncheons. Many of those who survived the confrontations were arrested in the days that followed the protests.

Iran's state radio and television broadcasts initially announced the number killed as eight and later eleven. However, more than twenty-five days after the street demonstrations, there are still many who have disappeared and their names are not on the lists of those who have been killed or arrested.

Many mothers have been anxiously going to any authorities who may give them information about their disappeared loved ones but have received no answers.

Now that families are slowly receiving the bodies of their slain children, it has become clear that the number of fatalities is much higher than what the government of the Islamic Republic has published. Moreover, the families are being forced to sign legal covenants that they would not disclose how and when their loved ones died. But it is not possible to hide the truth forever, and it is not possible to silence the cries, so the tragedy of the past weeks is showing larger in the eyes of the Iranian people as days pass.

Many mothers whose children were killed, are still among the disappeared or are in prisons have formed the Committee of Mourning Mothers.

Every Saturday from 7 to 8 PM, the members of this committee and other women who empathize with them dress in black and gather in public parks in their cities and towns to stand vigil and silently express their pain.

I would like to express my deep sorrow and condolences to the mothers who have lost their loved ones for freedom and democracy in Iran, and I stand in solidarity with women who are still searching for their disappeared and the large number of young Iranian women and men who are now in prisons because of their civil activism.

I invite all freedom loving women of the world to dress in black and gather in solidarity with the Committee of Mourning Mothers every Saturday in their own cities and towns to help make their voices heard throughout the world.

2009-07-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

On 15 July Natalya Estemirova, 50, was kidnapped and murdered by unknown assailants in the Chechen capital Grozny. The mother-of-one worked for the human rights organisation Memorial and was a close friend of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also murdered in 2006.

A human rights activist is killed like a dog, executed, dumped and humiliated in front of the eyes of a million people, who know that what she was saying was true, right, honest and proper.

I openly declare myself a pacifist, because I know what militarism and war brings to young people. I am against all wars and violence and I am very clear about what they mean for women, just as I also know their capacity to rebuild life, to defend it and to disarm it.

In Chechnya, the whole weight of the war fell on women. When the abductions began, it was us women who confronted them, denouncing these crimes. In 1995 we organised a peaceful march from Moscow to Grozny. And we didn't just denounce the crimes and violence of the Russian government, but also the violence of our governments and of the armed groups.

The role of women is indispensable, it was indispensable in all that time. Without it, Chechnya would have disappeared. Imagine, how it changed our lives: all of a sudden, the traditional strongly patriarchal family has a woman at its head and she must take on all the responsibilties.

We demonstrated with our work of peaceful resistance that Chechnya can survive without Russia. You cannot imagine the different situations that we confronted, the resources and strategies that we put in place to keep going. Alone and without weapons!

If we think about what men consider to be heroic acts our actions have been heroic acts: the daily work of survival. I remember when we didn't jave food and no supplies reached us.

The women found a way of bypassing the military control points and brought food to their families. First negotiating with the military and trying to reach Grozny in a vehicle without being fired on. Then we hired an armoured car and then a helicopter.

We converted the weapons of war and destructions to instruments for life. Despite the important role of Chechen women, Chechnya is a very traditional, conservative and patriarchal society.

There's still a lot of work to do. But I believe that it's necessary to have a country and then to rebuild it - to rebuild the lives of the people so that they can recover after so many years of war and violence. It's true, we women have an important opportunity for peace and for the future of Chechnya. .

Natalia Estemirova

Presidents sometimes say: a serious inquiry should be done in this case. Violence on journalists is not permitted. How could they say otherwise? Today when words count almost nothing compared to the escalating violence, to the human annihilation.

Where is the solidarity, the everyday culture of us normal human beings, who know that the freedom to behave humanely, with all those Habeas Corpus human rights, is challenged every day in the streets, in the workplaces -- not only in wars, battlefields, mass graves? Why don't people of any city flock out to the squares as they did for the death of Michael Jackson, or some other mass media idol? Have we grown so stupid and blind to allow assassinations to be part of our daily life? Is this our present-day normality, and if so, what of our future?

When I hear Natalya speaking, I have no cultural, racial or language misunderstandings to bridge. I know exactly what she is saying, and to whom she is appealing. She is telling us just like Anna Politkovskaya and many other humanist activists, to live in truth, band together and defend the common denominator of basic human rights. You don't need to be Russian or speak Russian to understand that we are all in the same boat.

The abuse of civilians by an armed shadow state within the state is happening everywhere. Democratic regimes have abandoned state control over their military machines; the modern gunmen are privatized, offshored, clandestine and deniable. The best voices, the best actions come not from politicians but from relentless activists, journalists, lawyers. These are the Hypatias of 21 first century: the voices of reason and science. They are not gurus, they are not visionaries, they are not leaders, they are not stars. They bear witness with their lives and write what they know first hand. We must be clear and forthright about what it means to all of us, when assassins burn their books and bodies, as witches, as testimonies of uncomfortable truths.

Jasmina Tesanovic, Women in Black Belgrade 19 July 2009.

Natalia, our friend, human rights activist and Chechen feminist has been abducted and murdered.

Natalia, just like Anna Politkoskaia, has been murdered but her life and her words help us to continue on her path, to continue to work for peace and nonviolence, for the human rights of people, and for the pople who have lost their lives defending them.

We demand that the Chechen and Russian governments provide investigations and clarity on this monstrous murder.

NATALIA, ANNA, we won't forget you. Your smiles are with us forever.

A feminist Case Against NATO as an International Actor

2009-07-15T02:52:00.000-07:00

Women in Black from several European countries particpated in the mobilisation against NATO during the summit in Strasbourg at the beginning of April.

Together with other groups of women for peace, we held a workshop for which we received various texts for the presentationi and discussion of the "Feminist case against NATO".

A feminist argument against NATO as an international actor is the first part.

One important aspect of the feminist case against NATO is as an actor on the international scene - the worldwide scene of diplomacy, international relations and military policy. Nato creates a bloc of nations. Bloc logic is the old security logic of the Cold War era, disastrously continued into the present. But women don't recognise themselves in this logic of "Atlantic alliance", "fortress Europe", and "Western civilization". By definition it marks some out as Others, threatening gross insecurity to those outside the compliant coalition.

NATO reinforces the idea that nation states are the only units that count in world affairs. Along with the idea of nation as 'fatherland' goes the racist idea of blood and belonging that feminism absolutely rejects because it divides women on ethnic grounds and sets up women as reproducers of race and culture, the ones who pass on the nation's blookline to their children. Secondly, it reinforces the sense that these nations are in a natural hierarchy of strong and weak. In NATO; the USA represents itself as a protector of its weaker juniour partners - women do not welcome this paternalism, which they have experienced first hand as the 'husband and wife' model of human relations.

So feminists say, NATO's logic is a patriarchal logic. We have learned in our years of feminist antimilitarist theory and practice that nationalism, militarism and patriarchy are deeply intertwined and reinforce each other. Capitalism too. Patriarchal gender systems are one of the root causes of militarism and war. Patriarchy and capitalism use war to maintain their dominion. All thse power systems have designs on women and special uses for women that feminism roundly rejects. NATO reflects the mentality that says conflicts can only be resolved with weapons. By contrast, a feminist approach would be dialogue between countries and peoples with mutual learning and respect for worldwide diversity.

NATO is surrounded by secrecy. Some national governments have made the decision to join the NATO bloc without even discussion in parliament. This authoritarianism is totally anti-democratic and excludes ordinary people, especially women, from having any choice or voice in international affairs.

NATO is expanding its scope across the world. It now as 28 members and 29 more states now drawn into what NATO calls its Partnership for Peace. What a joke that expression is! NATO openly admits that it exists to pursue and defend 'interests'. And it is not just NATO. NATO is becoming the security model for Europe too. There is no longer any independent European thought. In 2007, NATO and the European Union signed a declaration creating a partnership around 'shared interests'. Whose interests are these? They are invoked by the rich countries and corporations and concern energy, economy and imperial control. They are certainly not women's interests.

Although the main motive of the Euroepan Economic Community was clearly the advancement of capital, many people, including many women, had hopes that European unity could prevent war in Europe happening again - as we also had hopes of the United Nations.

NATO's rules specifically contradict several clauses of the founding charter of the United Nations. This makes it illegal on five counts under international law. There is a much better model for international cooperation on security already in existence and it deserves strengthening: the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) With 54 member states, it is a 'primary instrument' for early warning, conflict prevention and civil crisis management, but too marginalised and totally underestimated.

Strategies for action at the international level are perhpas the most difficult for us as women. A rare example is in Monique Dental's paper: woemn of the Collectif Feministe 'Ruptures' and other women orgainsed a 'Women Citizens Letter to the French president during the Gulf war calling for an international peace conference. But if, as Mujeres de Negro Svilla write, we can "crack the code of patriarchy", if we can see through it, we can understand that it is a mere myth that international relations is up there in the stratosphere, out of our reach. The diplomats and military policy makers would like us to think that. But it affects our daily lives, it is our natural concern, and it can't be beyond our imagination as women and as feminist antimilitarists!

Workshop documents

Pirates of the Mediterranean

2009-07-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Free Gaza ship "Spirit of Humanity" sailed from Cyprus at 7.30 on Monday 29th June. On board were 21 human rights activists and solidarity volunteers, representing 11 nations. Among the passengers were Nobel Peace laureate, Mairead Maguire and former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat was carrying three tons of medical supplies, toys and crayons for children, and reconstruction kits for twenty families.

But it never arrived in Gaza because of an act of international piracy. The Israeli army boarded the Spirit of Humanity in international waters , arresting everyone on board and confiscating all the cargo.

According to an Israeli spokesman:

The Israeli navy has intercepted the cargoship Arion, flying the Greek flag, while it attempted to reach Gaza without authorisation.

If, as Israel claims, Gaza is no longer occupied territory, what right do Israeli forces have to decide about authorisation of a civilian ship to enter Gaza's territorial waters?

Perhaps basing their claim on the Oslo accords, which confered temporary control of the waters to Israel? Though Israel has not respected a single clause of the accords, they have used this argument against Gazan fishermen.

Perhaps to maintain a naval blockade against "the hostile entity"? But according to the Geneva Convention, even in time of war, naval blockades must not impede the passage of humanitarian aid.

It seems, however, that Israel is looking after the needs of the 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the Gaza Strip. So, at least, says Mark Regev, spokesman for the Prime Minister, labelling the activists on board the ship "apologists for Hamas".

Indeed, the Israeli armed forces have even established a committee to decide what food the inhabitants of the Strip should eat. But their role isn't to smooth the transfer of aid, but rather to check the containers sent by international solidarity organisations and to decide whether they contain "luxury items". Led by high ranking officers, Colonels Moshe Levi, Alex Rosenzweig, and Doron Segal, it meets every week to take these decisions, so important for the security of Israel. Some days ago, cherries, kiwi fruit, plums, grapes, apricots, and almonds were labeled "too luxurious" and so banned.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, talking of 1.5 million people trapped in despair, doesn't seem convinced by the efforts of the three colonels:

Under international humanitarian law, Israel has the obligation to ensure that the population's basic needs in terms of food, shelter, water and medical supplies are met.

The ICRC once again appeals for a lifting of restrictions on the movement of people and goods as the first and most urgent measure to end Gaza's isolation and to allow its people to rebuild their lives.

The almost 4.5 billion dollars that donor countries pledged for reconstruction at an international summit in Egypt in March 2009 will be of little use if building materials and other essential items cannot be imported into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli act of piracy against an unarmed vessel that had already been checked for arms by the Cypriot authorities, is nothing other than an attempt to block the expression of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

We must act now:

Take part in a mail blitz. with one click, send an email to the President of the Republic, the Minister for External Affairs, the Presidents of the Chamber and the Senate, and to the presidents of the foreign affairs comittees. - http://www.actionforpeace.org/index.php/freegaza.html
Sign the petition to the leaders of the US and the UN– http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazashippetition
Spread the word – send this message to your mailing list, forward it via Facebook, Myspace, etc……
Get out on the streets! Organise local emergeny protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza and to demand the release of all who have been abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Support other solidarity actions: for Gaza:
Call the media and insist that they do not hide this criminal act.

Say no to militarisation and war - 4th July at Vicenza

2009-06-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

Opposition to war and militarisation is a founding principle of the Women in Black.

For this reason we respond to the appeal of the women and men of the Permanent Protest No Dal Molin to return to the streets of Vicenza to take part in the construction of "a free territory that does not welcome the military". We know that this is not just an aim of the citizens of Vicenza, but of all those who are following nonviolent ways to exit the culture of arms and war.

THEREFORE WE WILL BE THERE AT THE 4th JULY DEMONSTRATION

Donne in Nero - Italia

4 July: Independence ? It must be won

"a victor is merely a dreamer who never gave up. " Words of Nelson Mandela, Nobel peace laureate, but also for tose who wanted to continue with the politics of Apartheid, words of an extremist who deserved to be imprisoned for his opposition to the state ideology, the imposed racial segregation on South Africa in the 20th century.

Dreamers too are the people of Vicenza who oppose the will of the greatest world power and its vassal in Rome - the Italian government - to obstruct the realisation of a new, devastating military servitude. Because, even when due distinctions are made between a Nobel laureate subjected to a long imprisonment for actions of sabotage, and citizens put on trial for having chained themselves to a government building, they still have something in common, the everyday irrationality that is called dreaming.

Vicenza is a territory that stubbornly refuses to surrender to the cement and steel of the 173th Airborne Brigade that would like to make its nest among the Palladian villas, because surrender would mean accepting the devastation of their territory and of the underlying aquifers. And it would also mean a loss of dignity as citizens.

"Pull up the local dissent by its roots": those are the words of Commissioner Paolo Costa – he who followed the Vicenza problem for the Italian government. These words contain the will to transform citizens into subjects, canceling, at a stroke, every democratic principle to make way for an oppressive "reason of state" that would impose on the community the acceptance of any sacrifices on ethical and moral bases that no one really understands.

Between perseverance and surrender, we choose to continue to dream, because we believe that the route we have have begun in our city leads to a collective dream that speaks of a community that governs itself, based on its own needs, refusing to delegate decisions to someone else, because we do not accept the order to host a base of war that we do not want, because we despise those who for economic or military interests buts at risk our territory and the safety and health of its inhabitants. Because we want to feel free to live our daily life in our own land, free of the presence of thousands of soldiers and their instruments of death and destruction.

On July 4th, we want to construct our independence, not as a formal bureaucratic act, but as a process of participation, action and re-appropriation. Because independence must start with ourselves, with our ever-changing being, and our claim to the land that is ours in that it is where we live.

So, to the words of Nelson Mandela, we can add those of Marcos with which we started our journey more than 2 years ago: because if it's true that "a victor is simply a dreamer who never gave up " and it's also true that "If one dreams alone, it's only a dream, if one dreams together, it's the start of reality". On July 4th, we will continue to dream of independence, of dignity, of participation. The Other Comune wants to construct the other world that is possible.
Thursday 18 June 2009

http://www.nodalmolin.it/spip.php?article284

An evening for the women of L'Aquila

2009-06-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 24th June, 21.00, TEATRO DELLE MUSE via Forlì 43 ROMA

A subscription concert to support the reopening of the Women's antiviolence centre in L'Aquila, following the earthquake.

With the women of l’Aquila there will be

Concertinas, guitars, drums, harps, mandolins, bouzoukis, voices and colours.

With...
Letizia Aprile - Angelina Arru-Roberta Bartoletti - Riccardo Battisti

Claudia Boncompagni - Sabina Cascino-Nadia Cervoni - Giuliano Gangemi

Anna Maria Giordano - Francesco Gramazio-Maria Olga Greco - Massimo Greco

Valeria Landolfi - Silvana Marconi-Massimo Moraldi - Patrizia Nasini-Antonia Panico - GiselaTheye-Olivia Zaccagnini & Micaela Serino

With
SLABoratorio

Popular music and more
directed by Roberta Bartoletti

LABoratorio del Canto
directed by Patrizia Nasini
from the
Circolo Gianni Bosio

INFO: DLF 348 3505463 CPO 329 4159514

Only hatred will remain here

2009-06-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

These are the words of Ezra Nawi arrested during the demolition of a Bedouin house by the Israeli army.

Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can't sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help. We are writing today to tell you about one of these special people.

His name is Ezra Nawi.

You've probably never heard of him, but because you may know our names, now you will know his name

Ezra Nawi is one of Israel's most courageous human rights activists and without your help, he will likely go to jail in less than 30 days. His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region.

These homes and the families who live in them have been under Israeli occupation for 42 years. They still live without electricity, running water and other basic services. They are continuously harassed by Jewish settlers and the military

Nawi's friends have launched a campaign to generate tens of thousands of letters to Israeli embassies all over the world before he is due to be sentenced in July. They've asked for your help.
His name is Ezra Nawi.

We keep saying his name because we believe that the more people know him and know his name, the harder it will be for the Israeli military to send him quietly to jail.

And Ezra Nawi is anything but quiet.

He is a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent who speaks fluent Arabic.

He is a gay man in his fifties and a plumber by trade.

He has dedicated his life to helping those who are trampled on. He has stood by Jewish single mothers who pitched tents in front of the Knesset while struggling for a living wage, and by Palestinians threatened with expulsion from their homes.

He is loved by those with little power, to whom he dedicates his life, and hated by the Jewish settlers, military and police.

Now that you know Ezra you've got the chance to stand up for hime and for everthing that he represents. Especially now as Israel escalates its attacks on human rights and pro-democracy activists.

He needs you. His friends need you. The people that he helps every day need you. Please send letters to the consulate, to the media, to your friends and family. Just take a moment to write a letter. Do it now and them share is name with a friend. Do it for Ezra Nawi.

Noam Chomsky
Naomi Klein
Neve Gordon

Send this letter to the Israeli embassy in Rome and to the Italian consulate in Tel Aviv.

Click on the link and a mail window will open. Copy the following letter and send it.

Please do everything you can so that Ezra Nawi doesn't go to prison. His crime was to defend the human rights of the bedouins in South Hebron.
It's hard to understand how a person like Nawi, who represents the best of Israel, can be persecuted by the Israeli army because he tried to defend the rights of others.
I pledge myself to tell everyone I know about Ezra Nawi's couragious work and about the injustice of his arrest. I will invite my friends to watch the video, to write letters, and to talk about Ezra at every opportunity, and I will tell everyone about Israeli repression of human rights activists, be they Israeli, Arab or international.
We await his release.

In Gaza for the children, CodePink invite President Obama to visit the Strip

2009-05-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

120 US citizens enter Gaza to bring help and solidarity to the children of Gaza, traumatised by long years of occupation, siege, and war. They invite President Obama to visit the Strip during his stay in Egypt on June 4th.

Yesterday, May 30th, a delegation of over 70 people entered the Gaza Strip bringing toys, school materials, medicines, and the makings of three playgrounds.

This delegation joins a group from New York and 40 students who were already in the Gaza Strip, bringing the US presence in the area to more than 120 people.

In addition to bringing solidarity to the population, the US activists invited US President Obama to visit the Strip during his upcoming stay in Egypt to see with his own eyes the conditions in which people are living because of the siege.

"We believe that if President Obama is serious when he says he wants to reverse the past trend of US policy, then he should personally see Gaza. ", declared Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace and promoter of the delegation to the Gaza Strip. " We are sure that if he could go in person and see and hear of the sufferings, he would put the necessary pressure on the governments of Israel and Egypt to immediately open the borders. ".

"If President Obama can, at the last minute, add a visit to Saudi Arabia for a private dinner with the king, then he can certainly go to Gaza", said Colonel Ann Wright, co-leader of the delegation, a retired colonel who resigned from the Department of State in 2003 in protest at the war in Iraq.

To convince him, the invitation will be sent to him by way of an international petition, and the signatures collected on the Internet will be delivered to the US embassy in Cairo on June 4th, the day on which Obama will make his speech to the Islamic world.

Click here to sign the CodePink petition calling on Obama to take this important step towards peace in the region.

CodePink has organised several delegations to the Gaza Strip to witness the devastation caused by the Israeli attack and by the siege which continues to block the arrival of food, medicines, and materials for reconstruction almost 6 months after the Israeli invasion.

A Udine: Recognition for RAWA

2009-05-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

On April 25th 2009, the “Honor et Dignitas” prize was awarded to RAWA at the Balducci Reception Centre

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan has been active for 25 years. It was founded in Kabul in 1977 by a group of women intellectuals, under the leadership of Meena, a teacher and poet, who was assassinated in 1987 by Afghani agents of the KGB in collaboration with the fundamentalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

RAWA maintains a political position in defense of democracy and against all forms of fundamentalism. RAWA also performs social work both in Afghanistan and among the refugees in Pakistan. They have opened schools, orphanages, literacy courses for women, groups to raise awareness about health, rights, and democracy.

In a female population that is suffering from serious problems of depression - statistics show percentages rising to 98%- the women of RAWA have tried to keep alive the awareness of rights and the hope of change in a civil society devastated by civil war, by fanaticism, by exile. They have preserved the seeds of culture and of civilisation that represent the only prospective for the future.

It was May 2001, when Mariam Rawi and Zoya Gathol, invited by the Women in Black, first met the women and men of Udine. The assembly was attentive to their testimony, participative and grateful for the example of courage and simplicity that the young women of RAWA offered when they denounced the arrogance and the freedom-killing power of the Taleban. They were admired for their nonviolent resistance, for the tenacity with which they continued to sow the seeds of a free future in their martyred land.

We know that the Afghans look to the Italian Resistance as an example of an achievement that in their own country seems dramatically remote; a symbolic place from which to draw the force to feed the hope that they need. And for this reason, they immediately accepted the proposal of participating with the Women in Black in parade celebrating the liberation of Italy on the 25th April.

So, on a wonderfully sunny day, crowned by the prize giving ceremony that took place a few hours later at the Balducci Centre, they walked with us - Women in Black from Udine and other cities and with the women of Cisda.

We walked, knowing that we were participating in an event that transcended the limits of our own lives and the limits of geography. In a great embrace of recognition we joined with those who fought during the Resistance because they could not live with injustice, so that it might be possible to build a world founded on respect for the rights of everyone, founded on peace.

Perhaps also for this reason, the Afghan women sought among the lined faces and among the flags, a face of a woman who could, at least in part, make that embrace a reality. They wanted to tell a woman partisan about the importance they felt in being there, and they found her in one who after having urged them to continue in their struggle - firstly in the struggle for freedom from male oppression - took off the ANPI neckerchief and gave it to Sahar, who then tied it round the tiny head of her little four month old daughter. A gesture of passing on, that moved us deeply.

The prize giving ceremony was held at the Balducci Centre in Zugliano. A long and emotional applause accompanied Mariam when she moved to take her place on the platform. Her testimony spoke to us of an ever more violent Afghanistan - more violent today than it was on the eve of the armed Western intervention.

In 2001, three objectives were bandied to justify the war in Afghanistan: to bring freedom and rights to women, to bring democracy, and to defeat terrorism. But the situation now is terrible, much worse than the international media would have us believe, since the strategy that the US have adopted to destroy the power of the Taliban has been to make pacts with war criminals and fundamentalists, who have come together in parties like the Northern Alliance and who currently make up - according to Human Rights Watch – 85% of the Afghan parliament.

Strategies such as setting up talks with so-called "moderate" Talibanis ” or with criminals like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – cannot and have not set a course towards pacification. Instead they have lead to a new heightening of the conflict. And the countries of Europe, including Italy, have lined up behind the US policy.

The consequence of the power structure in Afghanistan is to make the conditions for women even more dramatic: “ Violence and rape of young girls and very old women, group rapes, forced marriages - including very young girls” are commonplace, as RAWA has witnessed.

“The percentage of women who commit suicide has risen sharply, as have the acid attacks on women students and teachers. ”.

However, the most serious matter - that has no parallel in other countries, according to Mariam, is the recent law proclaimed by parliament that denies women the rights of freedom of movement and self-determination.

“we have returned to the Taliban period and the US is doing nothing to oppose the violation of elementary and fundamental rights, such as the right to leave the house or to study. The war, so they said, was needed to free women from the burqa, but eight years on, no woman goes about without the burqa or the chador, because of the fear of being attacked by fundamentalists. ”.

Mariam also asks: how can cities and villages be bombed killing helpless civilians, in the name of the fight against terrorism? Further - with a completely corrupt parliament, in the hands of the fundamentalist war criminals, whose pockets are being lined with the economic aid coming from the international community?

For the population it's clear that the the strengthening of the Western presence in Afghanistan brings about only the construction of more military bases.

“The Afghan parliament, supported by the West, is absolutely nothing to do with democracy and those who use the instruments of democracy to oppose it are persecuted - for example, the case of independent journalists like Sayed Kambaksh who was condemned to death and has had his sentence commuted to 20 years in prison. Many others are in prison like him, many have even been killed. The Afghan parliament, supported by the West, is absolutely nothing to do with democracy since one of the conditions imposed to get the reconstruction law passed has been the total impunity for war crimes committed by those who now sit in the parliament.”

Mariam also asked what kind of democracy the West has brought to Afghanistan when threats are made against “associations like RAWA while war lords are free to do whatever they want”.

Support the Reopening of the Anti-violence centre for the Women of L'Aquila

2009-05-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

The antiviolence centre for the women of the province of l’Aquila is a project that was started around two years ago by the group donnEmanifestE, made up of many women's groups, associations, and movements, including the Women in Black.

To get to work, the centre used space at teh AIED consultation centre - which is a participant in the project, as is th Women's library that is hosted in the same premises in the old centre of L'Aquila.

The antiviolence centre is run by around 20 women from the group donnEmanifestE, who have provided women who have turned to the centre free legal advice and psychological and medical help. They are supported by the collaboration of women professios in the fields of psychology, gynaecology, and law and were able to launch their services with an initial grant from the Province of l'Aquila.

During the two years of actvity many Italian and immigrat women, victims of male violence, mainly in the home, have turned to the centre for help.

Since the earthquake the centre is no longer usable and all the women from the centre have now been displaced.

Despite this difficult and painful situation all the women of donnEmanifestE are convinced of the urgency of reopening a physical space to restore the visibility of the antiviolence centre, to reconnect the threads of relationships with the women and to rebuild a place of welcome and of exchange of experiences for the women, especially in the current situation where emergency causes the nuclear families to close in on themselves and reinforces the relationships of power between men and women within the family.

Faced with the uncertainty of the timelines for rebuilding, of the management of the funds and their destination, the most important need of the centre is to rebuild a place, even if it is temporary and precarious - a place that is recognisable for women, so that they can restart their work and not lose the experience they have developed so far.

The conditions of great difficulty for all the women that gave life to the antiviolence centre project make it impossible for the women of of the centre to restart their activities alone. For this reason, they need concrete help by way of a campaign in solidarity with the antiviolence centre.

To send contributions:
c/c IBAN IT88S0501812100000000126343
Bank: Banca Popolare Etica
Account name: Associazione Biblioteca delle Donne Melusine
Address: Via delle Tre Spighe n°1, 67100 L'Aquila
Codice fiscale: 93005400663
Motive: emergenza terremoto Centro Antiviolenza.

For info: Simona Giannangeli 335/8305681, Valentina Valleriani 328/2424103.

Unacceptable and immoral - the purchase of the F35s

2009-05-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

We maintain that it is unacceptable and immoral that the government should decide to invest tens of billions of Euro to purchase military strike aircraft. For this reason we promise that we will ensure that this cry of protest reaches every corner of Italy, in the hope that this programme may be halted.

The decisions, on the 7th and 8th April, of the Defense Commissions of both the Camera and the Senate in favour of a «programme, extending over several years, for the purchase of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is only the most recent and most obscene example of the policy of rearmament which the Italian government is pursuing, together with its allies. The obscenity of the decision is made more visible because it occurred at the time when Abruzzo was struck by an earthquake. Money's hard to come by for rebuilding houses and civilian infrastrucure, but when it comes to buying war planes - No problem!

The military strike aircraft JSF (better known as F-35) are attack planes, capable of carrying atomic weapons, and which constitute the new tactical direction of the airforce and the navy in the first half of this century. They are certainly the perfect instruments for the type of "global policing" that is being developed: Once they've been built, they certainly won't lie rusting in their hangars in Italy or Holland, but rather will be speedily put to use killing and destroying in different wars, both current and future.

The F-35s will cost us a pile:

Around 600 million Euro to build and bring into production the factory at Cameri
Around 13 billion Euro (in installments, until 2026) for the purchase of the 131 planes

And a billion Euro has already been spent or pledged.

No one can ignore the fact that, with this kind of money , everyone's conditions of life could be improved: for example, improving and extending social spending, protecting the environment in the cities and the country, investing in renewable energy sources and redistributing wealth.

According to the government the F-35 project will create jobs, will generate technolgical advances for Italian industry and will increase gross domestic product. So, rearmament as a way out of the economic crisis, just like in the great crisis of the 1930s and the depression at the end of the 1800s. A pity that in both cases this path led to world wars.

One thing is certain, the use of the new fighter-bombers in the "peace" missions will produce destruction, death and suffering.

We invite everyone to sign the petition proposed by the National Indignation Campaign(Click the image below):

and to participate in the actions to spread the protest against the rearmament policy :

22nd May, Rome, Piazza Navona
From 11.00 to 19.30 there will be a vigil to denounce the decisions of parliament and to communicate information against rearmament, nuclear weapons, the F-35s, with videos, exhibitions and documentation about military bases in Italy.

2 JUne, Novara, National Demonstration
15.00 Piazza Garibaldi in front of the train station.
Against militarisation, against factories of death, against all wars, for the conversion of military sites for civilian use, for a different economic model. Organised by the Coordination against the F35s.
http://www.nof35.org/