Monthly Archive for November, 2024

10,000 arrests demand CEASEFIRE NOW!

Posted on November 19, 2024

Jewish Voice for Peace photo

From the Nuclear Resister

(This chronicle of resistance was originally published in issues #202, #203/204 and #205 of the Nuclear Resister newsletter. This online version includes available updates and corrections, and was last updated on November 19, 2024.)

Since October of 2023, thousands of protests and direct actions around the world have called for a ceasefire and end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In this day-by-day record of dissent, the Nuclear Resister has chronicled more than 10,000 arrests (and counting) in the U.S. and Canada on over 425 occasions across more than 140 cities and towns in 37 states and 5 provinces. More than one third of those have occurred on the campus of at least 70 colleges and universities. It marks the largest surge of anti-war arrests since mid-April, 2003, when the Nuclear Resister reported over 7,500 anti-war arrests in the U.S. alone in the lead-up to and first weeks of the second U.S. invasion of Iraq.

 » Read more…

Blockade arrest at Creech Air Force Base

Posted on November 13, 2024
A small group of activists with Veterans for Peace, CodePink and Ban Killer Drones converged October 13 – 19 in the southern Nevada desert at Creech Air Force Base (AFB) for a week of nonviolent resistance to the illegal US. drone warfare program. They traveled from four states for the 15th annual protest at the base, located an hour northwest of Las Vegas. Some participated for the entire week and others came when they could, but they shared one thing in common: an abhorrence of the inhumanity and illegality of the U.S. drone program that takes human life remotely and covertly from thousands of miles away.
Some of the week’s twice-daily commute hour vigils emphasized the horrors of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, assisted remotely by U.S. drone pilots and operators. On October 16, a nonviolent blockade of the entrance road temporarily halted business as usual at the base with a large banner:  “Send Food to Gaza, not Weapons to Israel”. Most blockaders stayed in the road until police gave dispersal orders. Toby Blomé held the blockade for as long as possible, displaying a sign directed at the Creech AFB commander: “Prosecute Col. Pederson 4 War Crimes.” She was arrested, detained for an hour, then cited and released.

 » Read more…

60 Days for New Hampshire direct action at arms factory

Posted on November 13, 2024
Four women have each been sentenced to two months in jail in New Hampshire, after pleading guilty in September to charges of misdemeanor criminal mischief and criminal trespass following their November 20, 2023 direct action to disrupt production at Elbit Systems in Merrimack. Elbit is notoriously Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, with factories and offices across both Great Britain and the United States being a focus of anti-war protest and direct action. 
During the November action, supporters had blocked the entry road before the morning shift arrived. Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis and Calla Walsh approached the Elbit factory, chained the doors shut, broke windows, marked graffiti and ascended to the roof of the building. Standing on the roof, they poured red paint down the front wall and held aloft colorful theatrical smoke flares that drew the attention of arriving workers to their protest. 

 » Read more…

Indigenous Peoples’ Day arrest at Nevada nuclear test site

Posted on November 1, 2024

On October 14, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Catherine Hourcade crossed the boundary line of the Nevada National Security Site and was arrested. She was given a citation for trespass with a notice to appear in Nye County Court on December 9.   

A short while earlier, she had joined with others in a Shoshone/Paiute sunrise ceremony, led by Jeremiah Jones. The group then walked the short distance to the entrance of the nuclear weapons test site. Carrying the tribal permit Jones had issued, granting Hourcade permission to be on Shoshone land, she entered test site property and handed the officer the permit along with her ID. He asked her why she had trespassed, and whether it was because of the Shoshone. “Yes!”, she replied, “This is sacred Shoshone land and you don’t belong here!” She told the officer about the contamination there because of nuclear bomb tests.

 » Read more…

Two women arrested at Beale Air Force Base protest

Posted on November 1, 2024
by Chris Nelson
Catherine Hourcade (retired RN from Stockton) and Chris Nelson (Nurse Practitioner from Chico) were arrested on October 9th at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, California during a one-year anniversary commemoration of the genocide in Gaza. We are involved with Occupy Beale, a coalition of northern California peace activists who have demonstrated against militarism at Beale Air Force Base every month for 14 years. 
Because October is “Keep Space for Peace” month, we also included this issue in the letter we addressed to the new base commander. Catherine and I read it to the military staff at the Main Gate of Beale, then gave it to an MP to be delivered to Colonel Keagan L. McLeese. 

 » Read more…