We were soldiers in a wide variety of units and positions in the Israeli military—a fact we now regret, because, in our service, we found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service.

The Israeli Army, a fundamental part of Israelis’ lives, is also the power that rules over the Palestinians living in the territories occupied in 1967. As long as it exists in its current structure, its language and mindset control us: We divide the world into good and evil according to the military’s categories; the military serves as the leading authority in deciding who is valued more and who less in society – who is more responsible for the occupation, who is allowed to vocalize their resistance to it and who isn’t, and how they are allowed to do it. The military plays a central role in every action plan and proposal discussed in the national conversation, which explains the absence of any real discussion of non-military solutions to the conflicts Israel has been locked in with its neighbors. read full story / add a comment

The Intercept has published the guidelines whereby a person can be labelled a terrorist and
put on a no fly list by the US government. These are very vague and broad and it would be remarkably easy to end up on this list for a principled social activist, merely exercising their democratic right to protest read full story / add a comment

We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.

On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday independent TD's Clare Daly and Mick Wallace carried out a protest designed to highlight use of Shannon for military purposes yesterday. They were later released. Daly has vowed to hold the state to account for it's complicity in US military warmongering in the middle east and elsewhere. Fair play to Clare and Mick. read full story / add a comment

In the past week, Israeli military forces have escalated their offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted houses, civilian-populated areas and civilian facilities in the Gaza strip. Israeli warplanes have destroyed a number of houses while their residents were inside, without any prior warnings, killing and wounding many Palestinian civilians.
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Meeting on Building the People's Network

This is an important discussion for the future:
* Summing up the experience of the elections.
* How do we strengthen the movement?

Ideas on the table are ....
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Stop NATO Cymru Week of Action, Sat 30th Aug - Fri 5th Sep, Newport, South Wales plus Newsletter: https://network23.org/stopnatocymru/files/2014/07/scd.pdf read full story / add a comment

The Summer Series of the Easter Rising walking Tours has started. read full story / add a comment

The public and animal welfare organisations feel let down by the Irish judicial system.

E.G A.R (EAST GALWAY ANIMAL RESCUE) Moyglass, Loughrea Run by Sarah Gunther.
Miss Gunther was charged with eight counts of animal cruelty and received a fine of 250 euro at Galway District Court.on the 09/07/2014.

Many people have been appalled by the leniency of the judge in passing sentence on Miss Gunther and the state of the dogs found in her care.
Dogs which were removed from her care were ordered to be placed back into her care.With no surety that this will never happen again.

Miss Gunther in her own words called it an "Error of judgement".
Many believe she has showed no/little remorse for her actions and many worry that this will happen again and again.
It cannot be allowed to happen. What message has this just sent to the Irish public?

Miss Gunther has been very outspoken regarding individuals and rescues in the past and has been quick to point the finger at many Irish rescues regarding their standard of care.
She was also implicated in an on-line hate campaign directed at the family of Lennox. dog seized and destroyed by Belfast council on the 12/07/2012.

There are questions to be answered and larger issues to be addressed.Why was her fine so small? Why was she not banned from keeping animals? Why can she continue as a charity and receive public donations?

This case highlight the need for regulation within Irish animal welfare groups, qualifications, transparency, adequate support and perhaps a sentence that fits the crime of animal abuse.
And that Miss Gunther closes her rescue for good.
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On Friday the 11th July, people started gathering for the art weekend in which murals and new campaign banner and signs were prepared. Straight away work on the house with the mural “The struggle goes on” was started along with the sign on the roof which reads “Strength in Community”.

Saturday wasn’t suitable for outside work so after a fair while designing what the signs should say, work commenced at a shed which we were kindly given the use of for the weekend. read full story / add a comment

Following a massive ground assault on Shuja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City that cost over 60 people their lives before dawn Sunday, Israeli forces continued airstrikes throughout the afternoon and evening in every part of the Gaza Strip read full story / add a comment

On Wednesday 9th July, 6 Corrib campaigners appeared in Belmullet District court to answer charges as a result of their opposition to Shell. While the following Friday John Monaghan appeared in Castlebar Circuit Court, where he was appealing a conviction of obstruction and careless driving outside Shell's Aughoose compound. read full story / add a comment

As the death toll in Israel’s latest onslaught on Gaza surpasses 260, actions have been called around Ireland taking place this week and next. It’s important that as many people as possible turn out to show their solidarity with the Palestinians people under attack, their opposition to this latest round of brutal attacks on Gaza, and their anger at political inaction and media misreporting of the issue. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday afternoon tragically 295 people lost their lives. What we do know is that if the Kiev fascist regime had any sort of tenuous proof that the separatists had shot it down the Western media would be screaming bloody murder. Instead they are quite coy and initially qualified it with the word accident. And accident of sorts it may well have been because it looks like this may have been more than yet another provocation by US/NATO via their neo-Nazi puppets in Kiev to widen the conflict but in fact may have been a direct attempt to assassinate president Putin because it has been reported his presidential plane flew over the same region approximately 30 minutes earlier. More on this later. But first some details on the lead up to this. read full story / add a comment

I am an American currently living in Ireland. I recently attended the Twelfth of July events in Belfast. This particularly piece is on my experiences at the bonfires. read full story / add a comment

The Intercept -the website setup by Glenn Greenwald and others this week publishes a new summary of intercept capabilities used by the NSA and Britain's GCHQ, this time covering how the intelligence agencies working on behalf of the surveillance state disrupt public discourse on the Internet and seek to control the Internet.

The revelations cover a range of surveillance tools that are used to spy and collect information and as well as to disrupt individuals computers and to attack websites using the very same tools that the same state has imprisoned hackers for. read full story / add a comment

PRESS RELEASE - FRIDAY 11 JULY 2014 - ACCIDENT REPORT REFUSED

Simon Coveney has refused to release the Department’s Report on the loss of 230,000 salmon in Bantry Bay last February.

His decision claims that the work is not completed and that the public interest would not be served by the disclosure of the Department of Marine’s Engineering Division report.

The storm on February 1, 2014, saw a cage break loose from its mooring and upend itself into another cage at Gerahies.

Alex O’Donovan, Secretary of Save Bantry Bay [SBB] said in March of this year that after the official count on 19 February 2014 they understood that the farm had been ‘virtually wiped out’.

Minister Simon Coveney subsequently confirmed the loss of 230,000 Salmon in the extreme weather event of 2 February 2014.

Despite repeated requests, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] and Save Bantry Bay have been refused the Report, breaking Minister Coveney’s previous precedent of releasing such documents regarding salmon farm escapes. read full story / add a comment

Douglas Hyde Conference Friday 18th July 2014
Roscommon County Council is once again delighted to bring together many leading thinkers,
academics, poets, writers, musicians and speakers to discuss, debate and provide an opportunity for an interesting and challenging day‚s reflection for this year‚s Douglas Hyde Conference. read full story / add a comment

An analysis of what the IMF is really about... read full story / add a comment

Visit by Dáil Committee toTyndall National Institute, UCC, Monday 14 July. Questions need to be addressed in regard to departures of iconic researchers following SFI funded research work. In particular the iconic work on the junctionless transistor. read full story / add a comment