Update on Tristan Anderson

Posted on March 18, 2009

The first thing is that at the SF Anarchist Bookfaire on sunday his girlfriend called in from Palestein and gave an update on what’s been happenning.  He’s aparently in stable condition and will live (barring some unforseen disaster) but will have some degree of brain damage as a result of this and may or may not ever fully recover.  There is no good estimate for how long physical therapy will take.   People who support him and the work he – and many others – have been doing are encouraged to donate to an emergency fund his family is setting up to help cover his medical costs which are expected to be significant.  I don’t have a link for that yet but will post it as soon as I do.

There was also a protest in SF at the Israeli Consulate on Monday, more are planned in the future.  Solidarity protests have also occurred in Florida and NYC.

lastly I found this video of the actual shooting.  Thanks to Urak.net for posting it.

Media Links:

• Shooting Tristan Anderson – Counterpunch
• Friend says activist’s life is ’somewhat at risk’ in Israel – KPIX
• Ex-Cal tree-sitter hurt in West Bank protest – San Fransisco Chronicle
• American Injured in Clash at Israeli Barrier – New York Times
• U.S. citizen critically hurt at West Bank protest – Ha’aretz
• US national badly hurt in anti-fence protest – Ynet
• American hurt in West Bank barrier demo – AFP
• American badly hurt in clash with Israeli military – AP
• US demonstrator critically injured at West Bank protest – Jerusalem Post
• US activist critically injured by Israeli troops during protest in Ni’lin village – IMEMC

Tristan Anderson Critically wounded by IDF

Posted on March 13, 2009

I just got forwarded a message that a friend of mine has been critically wounded by the Israeli military while protesting for Palestinian rights. Apparently he was shot in the head with a tear gas canister and is currently in the hospital. He’s hardly the first American to be wounded by the IDF – just a few years ago Rachel Corrie was run over by a bulldozer that was destroying Palestinian homes in the West Bank to make room for yet another illegal Israeli Settlement in the tiny strip of land that is all the Palestinian people have left of their country.

Just imagine what the American response would have been if a Palestinian soldier had willfully run down and killed an American citizen or shot an American citizen in the head, and then compare it with the complete indifference from Bush and Obama both in response to these assaults. That right there should tell you everything you need to know about the stranglehold that the Zionist lobby (as opposed to the mythical “Jewish” lobby – plenty of Jewish folks oppose Zionism and most hard-core supporters of Israel in America are fundamentalist Christians) has on American politics.

Here’s the full article on what happened to Tristan.

13th Friday 2009, Ni’lin Village: An American citizen has been critically injured in the village of Ni’lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a tear-gas canister.

Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, is currently being taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister.

“The Israeli soldiers were standing on the hill looking over us firing tear-gas canisters straight into the crowd. Tristan was hit and fell to the ground. He had a large hole in the front of his head and his brain was visible. I tried to stop the bleeding, but he was bleeding heavily from the head, nose and mouth.” Ulrika Jenson (Sweden) – International Solidarity Movement

“Tristan was shot by the new tear-gas canisters that can be shot up to 500m. I ran over as I saw someone had been shot, while the Israeli forces continued to fire tear-gas at us. When an ambulance came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint
just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with the soldiers, the ambulance passed.” Teah Lunqvist (Sweden) – International Solidarity Movement

Contact:
Ulrika Jenson (English and Swedish) – +972 598 521 158
Teah Lunqvist (English and Swedish) – +972 598 531 036
ISM Media Office – 02-297 1824 or +972 598 503 948

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) http://palsolidarity.org/ is a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement committed to ending Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We call for full compliance with all relevant UN resolutions and international law.

For specific media inquires such as interview requests, photo usage, etc. please email the ISM Media Office at media [at] palsolidarity.org

Other sources are now reporting the following related details: Ulrika Jenson, an International Solidarity Movement activist, said troops fired tear gas canisters into the crowd from a hill above.

“Tristan was hit and fell to the ground,” Jenson was quoted as saying in an ISM statement. “He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible.”

Why the protests?
“Ni’lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently the town’s land is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the construction of the Wall.”

“Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29th July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital.”

Tristan’s Reporting:

Tristan’s 2004 Posts From Iraq | Tristan Speaking in 2004 About His Trip to Iraq During First Year of War | Tristan’s 2006 Report Back From Oaxaca

Recent Coverage By Tristan: Berkeley Oaks Tree Sit | 2008 Reclaim The Streets Protest | 2008 Iraq War Protest | 2008 Chevron Protest |Fossil Fools Bike Ride | Anti-War Bike Ride | More Of Tristan’s Indybay Reports Over the Years

Police Murder in Oakland

Posted on January 7, 2009

First thing you gotta understand is that Oakland has more unsolved murders then you can shake a stick at and the police don’t do shit.   Mayor Dellums, who ran on a “progressive” platform and built his election campaign on the support of all the various lefty community organizations does even less, he’s far too busy spending taxpayer money to fly to Vegas and go gambling to actually, ya know, do his fucking job.  So when BART Police shoot an unarmed man  who’s laying face down on the ground in the back in full view of a crowd of onlookers, some of whom just happen to be holding video camera’s, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that folks here decided it was time to get out in the streets and say “enough is enough”.

Video of the actual shooting from the Mercury News.

and a second video from the tv news

Oscar Grant, the victim, was 22 years old and lived in Hayward. He was in the Lakeshore BART station (in Oakland) when a fight broke out, from the news coverage it looks like he wasn’t even involved in the fight but “fit the description” (young black male) and when the cops came (the BART Police, not the OPD) they grabbed him, threw him face down on the ground to arrest him, and then – inexplicably – shot him in the back instead and killed him. It’s all there on the video. Check Indymedia and SFGate for more info.

Oscar’s family is pushing to have the cop charged with Murder but is being ignored by the Police department who, unsurprisingly, refuse to arrest one of their own without explicit instructions to do so from higher up.   The Mayor’s assistant issued a form statement and did not promise any action.    The cop who did the shooting quit the force and thus avoided having to face any internal review or disciplinary action.   As of this writing, no arrests or any legal action by the authorities has taken place.  So this fucker killed an unarmed man in front of dozens of witnesses and on video and walked away with no consequences of any kind.  If the pigs won’t prosecute him for murder under those kinds of circumstances, what are the chances for the other victims of police violence to get justice?  This is a blank check from City Hall for the police to terrorize and murder citizens with no fear of repercussions.  And, unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what’s happening.

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