Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

August 3, 2018

Contact Lost with Swedish Boat to Gaza


Swedish Boat to Gaza believed to be under Israeli Military Attack, after all contact lost
.https://stg2018.wordpress.com/category/ship-to-gaza-sweden/

First Nation elder on his way home, after Freedom Flotilla to Gaza attacked by Israeli military


Larry Commodore, Sto:lo First Nation, on his way home, after he was injured and imprisoned when the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza was attacked by Israeli military

By Canada Boat to Gaza
Censored News
Larry Commodore, elder and former chief of the Stó:lō First Nation (near Chilliwack, B.C.) is finally on his way home. Larry is shown on the right of the photo next to the Palestinian ambassador to Italy and Canadian participant Kathy Wazana and John Turnbull, skipper of the Freedom, last week in Palermo. He was among the participants from the Freedom Flotilla vessel Al Awda (The Return) which was attacked and violently captured by the Israeli Occupation Forces on Sunday. Larry and others were held in unlawful detention in an Israeli prison until today, and is now on his way how to family and supporters. Press and the public are asked to direct inquiries to our media spokespersons http://canadaboatgaza.org/contact-us/

The Freedom Flotilla spokesperson said Larry's foot was injured when Israeli military attacked the lead boat, and Larry spent the first night in the hospital, before being transferred to Givon Prison in Israel. -- Censored News

Update: New details on the attack by Israeli military. Freedom Flotilla passengers were tasered, beaten and imprisoned. Al Jazeera journalists remain in Israeli prison.
https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/news/violence-of-attack-on-al-awda-becomes-clearer-hunger-strike-freedom-is-coming

Defenders Lock Down in Colorado over Caged and Imprisoned Migrant Children at ICE

Unicorn Riot reporting live on Thursday -- "All eight folks who were detained by police after blockading the driveway entrances to the Field Office have been freed from custody. Seven of them were dropped off on the side of a road by police, instead of being brought to jail. More updates to come."
Defenders Lock Down in Colorado over Caged and Imprisoned Migrant Children at ICE
Militarized police in Centennial, Colorado, at ICE headquarters carry out Trump's orders to
cage and imprison migrant children who are separated from their parents.
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Colorado defenders of immigrants locked down for 7 hours in the 90 degree heat on Thursday -- singing out to defend caged and imprisoned migrant children and their parents, outside ICE in Colorado. One toddler died after being incarcerated and separated from her parents at a facility in Dallas, Texas, this week, as Trump's cruel and genocidal torture of migrants continues.

August 1, 2018

Rigoberta Menchú, women Nobel Laureates, urge Jerry Brown to transition off fossil fuels

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Photo of Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala courtesy of the Nobel Women's Initiative

Rigoberta Menchú and other women Nobel Laureates urge Jerry Brown to transition off fossil fuels

By Dan Bacher
Censored News

 A group of Women Nobel Laureates including Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala today sent a letter to California Governor Jerry Brown urging him to "begin managed and just transition off of oil and gas production." The signatories to the letter also include: Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland),  Jody Williams (U.S.A), Shirin Ebadi (Iran), Leymah Gbowee (Liberia) and Tawakkol Karman (Yemen). Below is the press release from the Nobel Women's Initiative followed by the text of the letter in both English and Spanish:
SACRAMENTO – Declaring that California has "a moral responsibility to act" and "climate leaders can no longer explore for and exploit new fossil fuels," a group of Nobel Peace Laureates today urged Governor Jerry Brown to freeze new fossil fuel drilling and develop a plan to transition 

Israel Violently Attacked Freedom Flotilla Boat, First Nation Leader Among Those Now in Israeli Prison

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Larry Commodore, Sto:lo First Nation, remains in Givon Prison in Israel today, Aug. 1, after Israeli military violently attacked the lead boat in the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, the Flotilla spokesperson told Censored News. Larry's foot was injured during the attack and he spent the first night in the hospital. Larry, former chief of Sto:lo First Nation in BC, is shown in the earlier photo on the right, defending the rivers and salmon.

Israel Violently Attacked Peaceful Freedom Flotilla Boat carrying medical supplies to Gaza, First Nation Leader Among Those Now in Israeli Prison
Larry Commodore, former chief of Sto:lo First Nation, is among those imprisoned in Israel prison
By Freedom Flotilla Gaza
Censored News
The statement made by the Israeli authorities that the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Al Awda boat was intercepted, boarded and redirected from Gaza, Palestine to Ashdod, Israel on 29 July without incident is false. According to first hand evidence that we have been given, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violently attacked our Norwegian flagged boat ‘Al Awda’ (The Return) as she was in international waters.
Prior to all of our electronic communications being cut to and from our boat, at least four warships had appeared. Following some unlawful radio directives to our captain and our insistence that we had a right of innocent passage in international waters, armed, masked soldiers boarded ‘Al Awda’ without permission. They assaulted several unarmed participants by hitting them and using tasers as some of our participants lawfully endeavoured to resist this attempted hijacking, drawing upon two days of non-violence training in Palermo. Other participants were also hit by soldiers in this anything but peaceful exercise by the IOF, for what may have been a range of ‘reasons’.
Three of the many people that Israeli soldiers assaulted were: Captain Herman Reksten, Mike Treen and Dr Swee Ang. All of these assaults, including the hitting of an unarmed slightly built, 69 year old female surgeon crosses a line which must be investigated and the criminals must be held accountable. We continue to try and gain evidence and will seek to ensure that justice prevails.
Two Israeli citizens (Yonatan Shapira and Zohar Chamberlain Regev) and two international Al Jazeera journalists have been released, but 18 of the participants have now spent their second night unlawfully detained in Givon Prison, Israel. To protest Israel’s illegal actions and their ongoing treatment, two participants have commenced a hunger strike.
We urge the Norwegian Government, along with the national governments of all of those who were subjected to these multiple breaches of international law to intervene and to demand the immediate, unconditional release of Al Awda and everything that was on board, including all of the participants and the medical aid that we were carrying to MyCare in Gaza for distribution.
We demand that the IOF does not engage in any similarly  unlawful and violent acts towards the yacht ‘Freedom’, the next of the Flotilla boats as she commences her approach to Gaza, Palestine via international waters.
#SOSjustfuture4Palestine