The Mule

Checkpoints and water cannons coming to Manchester?

Jenny — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:34:40 -0700

Manchester Cops in Torture Accusations

Jenny — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:23:04 -0700

Manchester hostage interviewed from Israeli jail

Jenny — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:22:29 -0700

Manchester three found guilty in coal train case

Jenny — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:26:19 -0700

Stoke fan receives payout from Greater Manchester Police

Jenny — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:53:14 -0700

Free Gaza Boat boarded by Israeli Navy - Manchester Human Rights Activist Arrested

Jenny — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:02:24 -0700

Going into Gaza by Adie Mormech

Tim — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:29:06 -0700

I'm painting and working on the boats that will hopefully take us into the Gaza Strip.

The Free Gaza movement has got boats through the Israeli blockade 5 times before, although a recent attempt last December saw the boats shot at and halted.

Given that Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on the planet has 1.5 million people penned in by Israeli forces over land and air, the Gaza Hope Fleet aims to beat the siege and bring in over thirty people by sea including Documentary makers, Medical Aides, a Nobel Laureate, Palestinians to be reunited with families and a range of other activists and volunteers. We're preparing the two boats, the 'Free Gaza' and the 'Spirit' and spending so much time on the boats has been quite an education and will be even more so once we set sail. We're expecting to depart on the 25th of June and it will take 30 hours to reach Gaza. Greta one of the founders from the US has recently made the following video about the the Free Gaza movement and the boats in action:

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWTHkyrZ4g

Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants were enduring their worst conditions for over 40 years aid agencies said last year, with 80 percent of the population dependent on food aid, due directly to the Israeli blockade depriving normal food, infrastructure and medical supplies. As life became increasingly harder with death and malnutrition, Israel then launched an air and ground attack in late December and early January that killed a further 1300 people, over 300 kids. Many thousands more were injured and the vast majority of the casualties were civilians. Over 4,100 houses were destroyed and a further 17,000 seriously damaged. 50,000 people are now homeless, tens of thousands lacking power, water and sanitation, as well as food and medical treatment. Of the 13 Israelis killed, 10 were IDF troops taking part in the assault. See this BBC report during the bombing:

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7812547.stm.

All this could not happen if the United States did not give an unprecedented 6 billion dollars of aid to Israel annually - and the weapons supplies from other allies such as Britain have gradually increased in recent years.

As materials for reconstruction have been refused entry into Gaza by the Israeli blockade, many families have for months continued to live in the rubble or in makeshift tents. The boats will be bringing some essential building materials and medical supplies and from my part I'll be taking lots of English learning books from the bookstall as part of the 'Right to Read' campaign. The universities in Gaza which I'll be visiting were bombed and according to UNWRA, Israel’s blockade is also preventing ink, paper and other learning materials from entering into Gaza. Here's a guardian report on how everything has remained in devastation since January:

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jun/08/gaza-reconstruction-refugees

When I hopefully get into Gaza, I'll be sending a few posts about what I find there. If you would like to help further, with the Free Gaza movement or any other, then get back to me or goto to the free gaza website: http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.freegaza.org. We also still need more funding and we need to get the word out!

Video of us the intrepid crew on the Free Gaza boat

Video featuring crew members Greta Berlin, Captain Dennis, First Mate Derek and Chief Scrubber Adie:

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.youtube.com/gazafriends

Roxana Saberi: press freedom or political bargaining chip - by Ruth Michaelson

Jenny — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:14:18 -0700

Rather than providing any surprises about freedom of the press in
Iran, the events surrounding journalist Roxana Saberi tell us more
about the relationship between Iran, its current place on the
international stage and the role the global media plays in its
portrayal.

Saberi, who was initially detained in January on the charge of
buying alcohol, had lived in Iran since 2003. Prior to having her press
card revoked by the Iranian authorities in 2006 she had been employed
as a freelance translator while also continuing to report for news
organisations worldwide. The charges against her were continually
altered: first for working as a reporter without press credentials,
then to espionage on behalf of the United States. Her trial was
remarkably short – as little as fifteen minutes according to sources –
held behind closed doors, and conducted without a defence lawyer and
she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in Tehran’s notorious
Evin prison. This marked the point at which her case became more about
the world’s reaction than another case of harshness of Iran’s
restrictions on journalists.

So what exactly is remarkable about Saberi? That her case progressed
much further than charges brought against others with dual
Iranian-American citizenship, of which there have been many, provokes a
certain curiosity. Although Iran’s less than liberal attitude towards
press freedom is well-documented, Saberi had not been a particularly
outspoken or rebellious critic of the government. The fact that her
case held such political cache is due mostly to a crucial timing which
ultimately seems to haven been responsible for her release. Saberi’s
plight was kept at the top of the international news agenda and her
hunger strike was taken on by journalists from Reporteurs Sans
Frontieres worldwide, an act which rightly acknowledges the positive
effects that such publicity can bring in these situations.

Saberi’s arrest on the 31st of January coincided with the
start of the Obama administration which had hitherto offered signs of a
tentative improvement in US-Iranian relations. Some argue that in much
the same way as President Obama purported to offer a new diplomatic
doctrine of openness and dialogue, the government in Tehran felt it had
to possess tools with which to negotiate; Saberi thus became political
‘leverage’ that would afford Iran greater power over the negotiations
table. This would explain the letter written by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to the public prosecutor emphasizing that Iran should not
be seen to be violating Saberi’s right to defend herself – for by this
point the stakes had risen from a question of domestic justice to
Iran’s political capital.

Yet the idea of the respective parts of the Iranian state uniting in
order to use Saberi implies a cohesiveness that does not exist in
Iranian politics, certainly not regarding relations with America. Far
more plausible is the suggestion that Saberi’s arrest was a very public
attempt by hard-line elements in Iran to poison relations with the US
at a time when discussions regarding their nuclear programme showed
potential of improving. But in a sense the motivations behind it are
now irrelevant. What we have seen is that with Saberi’s case becoming
the focal point of Iranian relations on a global level, the pressure
exerted and solidarity shown by the global media amongst others finally
forced her charges to be commuted to a two year suspended sentence,
permitting her release from prison. This illustrates the degree to
which Saberi’s case was subject to outside influence: the Iranian
government could not risk more adverse international attention on
Saberi or their treatment of journalists in general.

Saberi’s case presents a bizarre paradox: the world media performed
a kind of indirect humanitarian intervention, while on a political
level the plight of this one individual became the focal point of a
tug-of-war. Sadly her treatment is neither uncommon nor unique to
journalists in Iran, but the reaction to it has the potential to set a
positive precedent provided that we carry on watching.

A picture of unrest and discontent in French universities

Jenny — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:08:24 -0700

Protest against closure of Disability Benefits Centre

Jenny — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:21:30 -0700