Our “Teach-in on the occupy movement” event was held in the “University Community Centre” (UCC) atrium here in London, Ontario. This teach-in was arranged by some campus students and employees who plan to continue to collaborate with one another.
The day after our teach-in, the headline “UCC atrium gets occupied: Unauthorized pamphlets distributed” was on the front page of a campus paper that covered the event.
We had had prepared this pamphlet for the teach-in. Sections of it are about Canadian economy, universities, and local issues. This pamphlet was collectively read out into the “Community Centre” atrium during an assembly, where we also discussed its contents.
A group of guys with ties tried to disrupt the assembly by singing over us, but we just raised the volume of our people’s mic.
Details about how “Students’ Council” administrators tried to stop the teach-in are outlined below.
First, here is the event call-out, which communicates why we arranged this event -
The local chapter of Israel on Campus brought a soldier from the Israel ‘Defense’ Force (IDF) to the University of Western Ontario. Our campus was one of many stops on the “Our Soldiers Speak” tour. Sergeant Benjamin Anthony has been visiting campuses to tell students about his ‘glorious’ work as an instrument of the Israeli government. He began his speech here in London, Ontario by boasting about his role as a machine-gunner who has carried out raids.
But approximately 150 protestors were ready to condemn the IDF. Many of us wore the names of children who were murdered during Operation Cast Lead, which began in December, 2008. Some of us also wore red shirts, at the protest.
Activists passed around flyers and a petition from the Canadian Boat to Gaza while we were waiting for the speaker (who arrived more than half an hour after the event was scheduled to begin). One of the event organizers grabbed the petition and left the room with it. Others had to chase him get the petition back — at which point he only could feebly tell us that the petition shouldn’t be passed around, then and there.
“Israeli and international corporations are directly involved in the occupation: in the construction of Israeli colonies and infrastructure in the occupied territories, in the settlements’ economy, in building walls and checkpoints, in the supply of specific equipment used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.”
“Currently, we focus our attention on three main areas of corporate involvement in the occupation: The Settlement Industry, Economic Exploitation and Control of Population. At this stage in our project, we are not investigating the vast industry of military production and arms trade. The information we provide on the exploitation of Palestinian labor and production is also very limited.”
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler (in this article) -
A recent “Human Rights Watch (HRW) report focuses on six cases of Israeli drone-launched missile attacks in which 29 Palestinian civilians, eight of them children, were killed. Based on cross-referenced eyewitness accounts corroborated by doctors, as well as ballistics and forensic evidence collected on the attack sites, the report asserts that ‘in none of the cases did HRW find evidence that Palestinian fighters were present in the immediate area of the attack at the time.’ ”
“Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at the emergencies program of HRW, estimates that at least 87 civilians were killed in 42 drone attacks.”
“Israel is the world leader in drone technology.”
“Israeli drones have advanced sensors, combining radars, electro- optical and infrared cameras, and lasers providing real time imaging by day and night.”
“According to Palestinian sources, 900 civilians were killed during the military operations, among a total of more than 1,400 killed. The HRW report says a third of the fatalities were from drone-launched missiles. Israeli sources put the civilian death toll at 300.”
“SocProf” at the Global Sociology Blog -
“Colonial Dumping”
“Nice New International Division of Labor we got here: we produce garbage and we send it to poor countries” …
“[In Tel Aviv] most people eschew political discussions these days – mostly out of accumulated weariness and cynicism.”
“Israelis have turned inward – to family and nesting at home. Many of my friends boast they have stopped reading [journalism-]papers and rarely watch television [journalism].
“Dayenu! (Enough!).Enough suffering inflicted on the surviving families in Gaza who are hungry, thirsty, cold, frightened, wounded, traumatized for life, and bereaved. Enough. And enough suffering on the other side of the fence in Sderot and environs, too. (Their fates are inextricably intertwined; all our fates are inextricably intertwined.)
The generals and the militants have had their day, for the nth time – and at the end of it, as usual, all that we (any of us) have now, as a result, is war crimes and grief. War crimes and grief and fear. War crimes, grief, fear, hatred, and despair… with thousands of injured and disabled people bearing the burden most directly, forever.
Enough! Israelis are more afraid now than before, and more at risk, too. Time to ABANDON this insane strategy that we (any of us) can force people to love us, or anyhow accept us, by killing them!”
“They have lost everything and their situation is dire. We in Israel have lost our moral compass and we want to reclaim it.”
