PRO-PALESTINE YOUTH PROTESTING AGAINST zIONIST WAR CRIMES IN GAZA TARGETS OF STATE REPRESSION

Sent to jail for throwing a single bottle
The Guardian
13 March 2010

Last year, during protests against the attack on Gaza, a mixed group of demonstrators clashed with police. But when the alleged culprits were arrested in dawn raids, nearly all those taken were young Muslims

Badi Tebani and his wife were sleeping peacefully when all
hell broke loose. He shudders at the memory. The front door
was forced open, and then came the screaming. "Wah, wah,
wah, get down, get down, you are under arrest." Any number
of voices. He thought it was a nightmare – that he was back
in Algeria in the bad old days before he was granted
political asylum in Britain, and that the military had
broken into the house. When he opened his eyes, his bedroom
was full of police officers. "I have diabetes and high
blood pressure," he says quietly. "It was worse than
Algeria, even. I became very depressed."

It was 5am, April 2009. Badi's eldest son Hamza, 23, takes
up the story. "I woke up and tried to get out of bed. The
next thing is three police officers jump on top of me with
their knees, and they handcuffed me so hard I screamed.
That's when I really woke up." Hamza had been sleeping in
shorts. When he asked if he could put a shirt on the police
said no and opened the window. "It was freezing. I was
shaking."

His three brothers, the youngest of whom was 15 at the
time, were also handcuffed. Hamza says there were too many
officers to count – somewhere between 20 and 30. They took
computers, clothes, iPhones, everything. "I've never been
in trouble, never been to the police station except when my
car was broken into, and they were treating me as a
criminal. One of the officers was playing card games with
my iPhone, another was just ordering coffee."

Badi, an Arabic teacher, tuts. "They make our house into a
coffee shop."

But it wasn't Badi or Hamza the police were after. It was
Yahia, one of Hamza's younger brothers. When Yahia heard
that the police were looking for him he was confounded. "I
didn't know why they were there, and then I hear my name
and I'm shocked."

Three months earlier, in January last year, Yahia had been
outside the Israeli embassy on a fractious demonstration
against Israel's sustained bombing of Gaza. The British
foreign secretary, David Milliband, had condemned the
"unacceptable" loss of life caused by the Israeli strikes
on Gaza, saying the "dark and dangerous" events could fuel
extremism, and had called for an immediate ceasefire from
both Israel and Hamas.

Protesters complained that the demonstration was policed
provocatively and that they had been "kettled" inside a
tunnel and beaten. Meanwhile, the police complained that
they had been assaulted by demonstrators.

Yahia, 18, says both accounts are true. He claims that the
policing was aggressive and intimidatory, and that
demonstrators responded by throwing sticks and bottles at
the embassy and the officers, who were wearing full-body
shields. Yahia picked up a few sticks from discarded
banners and flung them in the direction of the police. He
was one of approximately 50,000 demonstrators, many of whom
threw objects. It was a mixed bunch – white and black,
Muslim and Christian, Stop the War Coalition, CND, all
sorts. This was one of a number of Gaza demonstrations
covered on television news, and it was reported there had
been some trouble – but nothing on the scale of, say, the
G20 protests or the poll tax riots.

Yahia, who was studying media technology at Kingston
University, had gone on the march for two reasons – to
protest, and to interview fellow demonstrators for a
project on Gaza. The crowd was held by the police for four
hours and eventually released. Some people were filmed and
had to give their name and address to the police, some were
arrested. Yahia simply left of his own accord, and
eventually got home at midnight.

He told Hamza it had been a difficult day, it had given him
plenty of food for thought, and that was that – until the
police broke into the family home in Finsbury Park, north
London, three months later. Yahia was arrested in March and
charged with violent disorder and burglary – at one point
during the demo, he says, he had taken a chair from the
nearby Starbucks to sit on, but police reports said the
Starbucks was trashed and mugs and chairs were used as
weapons. He was advised that the burglary charge would be
dropped if he pleaded guilty to violent disorder, for which
he would probably receive a suspended sentence or community
service. He thought a lesser charge of affray would have
been fairer, but agreed to the compromise. "It would always
look bad in the future if it says burglary. People won't
know what really happened, so I couldn't risk that being on
my file."

What Yahia didn't realise was nearly all the protesters who
pleaded guilty to violent disorder would end up receiving
immediate prison sentences. His friend Sidali is serving
two years. Yahia was in court the day Sidali was sentenced.
"He didn't even throw sticks," he claims. "He just pushed
or something, and his clothes were ripped a bit. In court
he was crying. The shock on his face, I've never seen
anything like that. Pah!" He blows his lips together in
dismay.

Yahia is to be sentenced this month. How's he feeling?
"Stressed. Pah. Just waiting to go in. I've been asking my
friend what it's like. He says time goes quick – he doesn't
want to scare me."

It's not just the prospect of prison that terrifies him,
it's what comes after. "If I've got 'ex-prisoner' on my
file, how am I going to get a job? It will destroy my
career."

At Isleworth crown court in London, where the cases are
being heard, a disturbing pattern is emerging. Most of the
78 protesters charged with public order offences were young
men in their late teens or 20s. Many were students. And
nearly all were Muslim. Some 22 protesters have already
received prison terms of up to two and a half years for
public order offences, and more cases are due to come
before the courts in the coming months.

The Gaza Protesters Defence Campaign has been formed by the
families of some of those arrested, together with
sympathetic MPs, the Stop the War Coalition and CND. The
campaign aims to highlight the perceived injustice, and has
launched a petition which will be presented to the attorney
general and the director of public prosecutions.

Earlier this month, families queued up outside committee
room 15 in the House of Commons for a campaign meeting.
Many feel bewildered by the sentences the courts have
passed on their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.
When Joanna Gilmore, a researcher at the University of
Manchester's law school who has monitored the cases, gets
to her feet the room is already full, and latecomers are
forced to listen from the corridor. "The vast majority of
the people involved here are of exemplary character," she
says, to mutters of approval. "The demonstrations were
overwhelmingly peaceful and if you compare the relatively
minor disturbances that took place with the violence on
other demonstrations these sentences are very severe."

Gilmore, who has followed all the court cases, says the
police arrested more people at the Gaza protests than at
any political demonstration since the poll tax riots, when
about 90 were charged with public order offences. At last
year's G20 demonstrations, during which a branch of the
Royal Bank of Scotland was looted, 20 were charged.

"Many were on their first demonstration and were protesting
because they were appalled about what was happening in
Gaza," Gilmore says. "These people and their families are
in shock and say that they will never take part in
political demonstrations again."

Bruce Kent, a former general secretary of CND and long-time
peace activist, gets to his feet to address the packed
meeting. Kent, 80, had been on the demonstration and says
he was "amazed and indignant" about the reaction of the
police and the courts.

"I don't know why there isn't absolute outrage … All this
will do is solidify in people's minds the idea that there
is a persecution of Muslims which is determined and
organised and will result in some young people being
radicalised."

He says there is a huge discrepancy in the way different
people are treated by the law, and recalls a time in 1986
when he had been convicted of criminal damage after cutting
a wire fence during a protest at a nuclear base. "I was in
the crown court waiting with my toothbrush packed. I
thought I was off to one of her majesty's holiday camps.
Not at all, not even a fine. Why? Because I am middle-class
and white."

Like Yahia Tebani, 24-year-old Ashir was in bed when the
police raided her west London flat at 4am. The strange
thing is, she says, her brother, who is due to be sentenced
for his part in the demonstrations this month, has never
been interested in "politics or religion" and only joined
the protest because he was at his cousins' house when they
decided to go.

Although Ashir says her younger sibling did not throw any
missiles, she admits he did protect himself when the
"police people started fighting". He left as soon as he
could, giving his details to officers. Two months later the
police made their unannounced visit.

"We heard a disturbance at the neighbour's flat first and I
heard loads of banging and shouting," she says. "I looked
out of the window but no one had police uniforms on so I
didn't know what was happening. A few minutes later when we
were getting back into bed we heard people running up the
stairs and then our door burst open. I was so scared
because I had no idea what was happening or who these
people were."

Every detail chimes with Yahia's experience – the family
were handcuffed for two and a half hours, Ashir only had
her nightclothes on and was not allowed to get dressed and
her computer was taken. "They said I may have weapons in
the house, but I didn't understand – what weapons could I
have? I am not a criminal. They went through everything.
They said they were looking for evidence, for clothes that
my brother had been wearing on the demonstration. They took
my laptop which had my university dissertation on spa
tourism on it because they said he had had access to it. I
asked if I could at least email the dissertation to myself
but they said I wasn't allowed to touch it. I still have
not got it back almost a year later even though I keep
asking for it. I had to start my dissertation from where I
had last saved it on a uni computer."

Ashir, who does not want to give her real name because she
fears going public might result in her brother being given
a bigger sentence, still has panic attacks about what
happened that night. "I am scared if I see any police
anywhere. Even if I was angry about something I would never
go on a demonstration now because I have seen what can
happen."

Muhammad Sawalha, president of the British Muslim
Initiative anti-racist group, has two questions: why were
such a high proportion of those arrested Muslim, and why
have they been dealt with so heavy-handedly?

Actually, Judge John Denniss has been quite clear about
sentencing policy. He has said, more than once, the
draconian sentences are meant to act as a deterrent to
future protesters. But, because of the fact that the people
being brought before the courts are disproportionately
Muslim, Sawalha says, the consequences could be disastrous:
"The British Muslim Initiative encourages Muslims to
express their feelings and ambitions and frustrations only
through political and legal processes. But if anything
sends the message that Muslims cannot express themselves
through political processes, and they will not be dealt
with like others, it will give more strength to the fringes
within the community who say democracy and the political
system doesn't apply to Muslims in this country. This will
only increase the frustration and sense of alienation among
these people."

Dr Khalil al-Ani says his son Mosab was one of the lucky
ones. There was no pre-dawn raid, no handcuffs, no
ransacking. He was simply asked to surrender his passport
to the police. Months after throwing an empty Orangina
bottle – the police said it was at them, Mosab said it was
at the Israeli embassy gates – he was charged. Mosab, who
was on a medical access course, hoped to be a dentist or
dental technician. He is now in prison serving a one-year
sentence.

It was the first demonstration Mosab had been on since his
family marched against the Iraq war in 2003. Al-Ani, an
Iraqi who works as a GP in Wakefield and Leeds, was pleased
his son would be on the march. His two sisters were also
going, and Al-Ani felt Mosab, then 20, would protect them.

Mosab was arrested on the day and taken to a police station
where he admitted throwing the bottle, apologised, and
stressed that he had not aimed it at the police. He was
released and returned to Yorkshire, but didn't tell his
father what had happened – he didn't want to worry him, and
he assumed it was the last he would hear of it.

"He didn't think it was serious because how many times have
you seen something like this or more serious, and nothing
happens." Al-Ani stops, and apologises for his tears. "I'm
sorry I get so emotional. I came to this country in 1981.
You can hear by the way I speak my accent is not purely
British. It is a foreign accent after all these years. But
Mosab was born here in 1988 – he is British in every sense.
This is the first time I feel that because he's a Muslim
he's been discriminated against. What he did was certainly
wrong, but he should be treated similar to a British
citizen. He's gone to prison for a single bottle that
didn't hurt anybody."

The astonishing thing is, he says, that the judge gave
Mosab a flawless character reference. "He said, 'I know you
came here peacefully, I know you have an excellent
character, I know you were not armed, you said sorry to the
police.'" He was sure his son would go free. "I was so
pleased. Then the judge says, 'I'm going to give you this
sentence to deter other people.'"

Back in north London, Badi Tebani is looking at the door
the police forced open. As they left the house, they made a
point of telling him it was still in one piece. "When they
finished their work, the police officers show me the door
and say, 'It's not broken, look, look,' and they took a
photograph. I told him, it doesn't matter if you broke the
door, you broke my life."

SEAMUS MILNE EXPOSES RACIST SENTENCING AGAINST YOUNG MUSLIMS PROTESTING GAZA MASSACRES

This tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all

The attempt to drive Islamists and young Asian activists out of the political mainstream is a dangerous folly

The Guardian
Seumas Milne [pictured above]

If young British Muslims had any doubts that they are
singled out for special treatment in the land of their
birth, the punishments being meted out to those who took
part in last year's London demonstrations against Israel's
war on Gaza will have dispelled them. The protests near the
Israeli ­embassy at the height of the onslaught were angry:
bottles and stones were thrown, a ­Starbucks was trashed
and the police employed unusually violent tactics, even by
the standards of other recent confrontations, such as the
G20 protests.

But a year later, it turns out that it's the sentences that
are truly exceptional. Of 119 people arrested, 78 have been
charged, all but two of them young ­Muslims (most between
the ages of 16 and 19), according to Manchester
University's Joanna Gilmore, even though such figures in no
way reflect the mix of those who took part. In the past few
weeks, 15 have been convicted, mostly of violent disorder,
and jailed for between eight months and two-and-a-half
years – ­having switched to guilty pleas to avoid heavier
terms. Another nine are up to be sentenced tomorrow.

The severity of the charges and sentencing goes far beyond
the official response to any other recent anti-war
demonstration, or even the violent stop the City protests a
decade ago. So do the arrests, many of them carried out
months after the event in dawn raids by dozens of police
officers, who smashed down doors and handcuffed family
members as if they were suspected terrorists. Naturally,
none of the more than 30 complaints about police ­violence
were upheld, even where video ­evidence was available.

Nothing quite like this has happened, in fact, since 2001,
when young Asian Muslims rioted against extreme rightwing
racist groups in Bradford and other northern English towns
and were subjected to heavily disproportionate prison
terms. In the Gaza protest cases, the judge has explicitly
relied on the Bradford precedent and repeatedly stated that
the sentences he is handing down are intended as a
deterrent.

For many in the Muslim community, the point will be clear:
not only that these are political sentences, but that
different rules apply to Muslims, who take part in
democratic protest at their peril. It's a dangerous
message, especially given the threat from a tiny minority
that is drawn towards indiscriminate violence in response
to Britain's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and rejects any
truck with mainstream politics.

But it's one that is constantly ­reinforced by politicians
and parts of the media, who have increasingly blurred the
distinction between violent and non- violent groups,
demonised Islamism as an alien threat and branded as
extremist any Muslim leader who dares to campaign against
western foreign policy in the Muslim world. That's
reflected in the government's targeting of "nonviolent
extremism" and lavish funding of anti-Islamist groups, as
well as in Tory plans to ban the nonviolent Hizb ut-Tahrir
and crack down ever harder on "extremist written material
and speech".

In the media, it takes the form of relentless attempts to
expose ­Muslims involved in wider politics as secret
fanatics and sympathisers with ­terrorism. Next week,
Channel 4 ­Dispatches plans to broadcast the latest in a
series of undercover documentaries aimed at revealing the
ugly underside of British Muslim political life. In this
case, the target is the predominantly British-Bangladeshi
Islamic Forum of Europe. From material sent out in advance,
the aim appears to be to show the IFE is an "entryist"
group in legitimate east ­London politics – and unashamedly
Islamist to boot.

As recent research co-authored by the former head of the
Metropolitan police special branch's Muslim contact unit,
Bob Lambert, has shown, such ubiquitous portrayals of
Muslim ­activists as "terrorists, sympathisers and
subversives" (all the while underpinned by a drumbeat
campaign against the nonexistent Afghan "burka") are one
factor in the alarming growth of ­British Islamophobia and
the rising tide of anti-Muslim violence and hate crimes
that stem from it.

Last month's British Social Attitudes survey found that
most people now regard Britain as "deeply divided along
religious lines", with hostility to Muslims and Islam far
outstripping such attitudes to any other religious group.
On the ground that has translated into murders, assaults
and attacks on mosques and Muslim institutions – with
shamefully little response in politics or the media. Last
year, five mosques in Britain were firebombed, from
Bishop's Stortford to Cradley Heath, though barely reported
in the national press, let alone visited by a government
minister to show solidarity.

And now there is a street movement, the English Defence
League, directly adopting the officially sanctioned targets
of "Islamists" and "extremists" – as well as the "Taliban"
and the threat of a "takeover of Islam" – to intimidate and
threaten Muslim communities across the country, following
the success of the British National party in ­baiting
Muslims above all other ethnic and religious communities.

Of course, anti-Muslim bigotry, the last socially
acceptable racism, is often explained away by the London
bombings of 2005 and the continuing threat of terror
attacks, even though by far the greatest number of what the
authorities call "terrorist incidents" in the UK take place
in Northern Ireland, while Europol figures show that more
than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe over the past three
years were carried out by non-Muslims. And in the last nine
months, two of the most serious bomb plot convictions were
of far right racists, Neil Lewington and Terence Gavan, who
were planning to kill Muslims.

Meanwhile, in the runup to the ­general election, expect
some ugly dog whistles from Westminster politicians keen to
capitalise on Islamophobic sentiment. With few winnable
Muslim votes, the Tories seem especially up for it. Earlier
this month, Conservative frontbencher Michael Gove came out
against the building of a mosque in his Surrey
constituency, while Welsh Tory MP David Davies blamed a
rape case on the "medieval and barbaric" attitudes of some
migrant communities.

As long as British governments back wars and occupations in
the Middle East and Muslim world, there will continue to be
a risk of violence in Britain. But attempts to drive
British Muslims out of normal political activity, and the
refusal to confront anti-Muslim hatred, can only ratchet up
the danger and threaten us all.

ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE FAIL MISERABLY IN EDINBURGH: SHOWS FAR-RIGHT MUST BE DEFEATED IN STREET CONFRONTATIONS

SDL World Pub Tour Continues

Scottish Defence League members from Leeds, Scotland.

Intro by Sons of Malcolm:

Yesterday's events in Edinburgh shows a lot of things:

- there is a split in the anti-fascist movement between the
completely non-effectual UAF/SWP status quo, and those who
want direct confrontation with the far-right, which
includes some UAF/SWP rank and file and other anti-fascists

- that the far-right in the form of ...anti-Islamic
politics is nowhere near as popular in Scotland as it is in
England, mostly to do with the fact that many Scots are
anti-imperialist/anti-English domination

- due to the above political dynamics, England is still
faced with a dire far-right threat from several quarters,
and requires a sizeable and robust anti-fascist movement to
challenge the far-right effectively, which is nowhere in
sight

- Anti-fascists in Scotland must not show hypocrisy and
allow the same far-right elements and their allies in the
supremacist Loyalist movements to attack those Scots who
identify with and support Irish Republicanism, with the
latter being attacked frequenly, esp at the Bloody Sunday
Commemmorations, as one person said on a comment on the
blog: "Well done. When the Irish community in Scotland
attempt to remember ‘Bloody Sunday’ we are attacked by
fascistic loyalists, BNP, NF and orange order members. We
are pelted with bricks, bottles, urine, shite by animals –
I look forward to our community being defended. Remember,
at the Glasgow SDL joke they did not attack our muslim
brothers and sisters – they attacked an Irish catholic pub
called the Empire Bar in the Saltmarket"

====================================

Though Cowards Flinch blog

Lessons from Glasgow

After much anticipation and preparation, today was the day of the English Scottish Defence League’s second outing. They had first appeared in Glasgow last November, with a generous estimate of 80 turning up to find themselves outnumbered by about 50 to 1, consequently finding themselves kettled in a pub by the police for their own safety.

There were two main lessons that people came away with from that encounter. First, that it had been a great victory for the anti-fascist movement, providing the confidence necessary to organise in future. And second, that there was a split in the movement over tactics. Broadly there appeared two groups: one led by the UAF/SWP under the banner of Scotland United, which favoured a parallel rally, hosting speakers from the Tories, SNP, Church of Scotland and others, and to that end actively opposed any idea of direct confrontation with the SDL. And one led by a range of activists from the SSP, anarchist groups, student groups and others (including, it must be said, individuals from UAF/SWP), which favoured direct confrontation via a march on the SDL position wherever it may turn out to be.

Fortunately and unfortunately respectively, these will once again be the two main lessons that people come away with from today’s encounter.

The combined march towards Royal Mile.

Preparation and March

Almost immediately after Glasgow there were rumours that Edinburgh would be the next destination, and so the Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance (EAFA) was established to organise those preferring the tactic of confrontation.

Needless to say that plenty of anti-fascist/anti-racist posters went up around the city from both the EAFA and the UAF, as well as many city-centre shops carrying leaflets on their counters. Indeed, such was the saturation that it led a Conservative councillor to complain that anti-fascism has become a “polarising influence” — Tories on the ball as always!

Each group, of course, was advertising its own event. The UAF/SWP rally was to occur at 11.30am and march through the city centre, while the EAFA organised to meet at 9.30am before heading wherever the SDL turned up. Coincidentally, the UAF/SWP decided to start advertising for students to gather at 10am instead, just down the road from where the EAFA were meeting.

This proved to be a mistake on their part, as the EAFA decided to join up with this group at around 10.20am while they waited for news on the SDL’s arrival. This turned, consciously or otherwise, into an entryist manoeuvre, as they soon got news of the SDL’s location and marched off with the entire group in tow.

Anti-Fascists headed by the EAFA move towards the SDL position after temporary confusion.

This is where the UAF/SWP’s role became a damaging rather than a building one. Having failed to stop the entire group marching off, they set themselves up further down the road with a loud-speaker to try and convince as many people as possible into staying with them. While this first attempt failed entirely to halt the enthusiastic crowd it did succeed in sowing the seeds of confusion in the majority who were not there with a group, but rather as a response to the posters, media coverage and word of mouth.

Having heard (accurately) that the bulk of SDL members seemed to be having a morning drink near Holyrood Parliament, the march entered the Royal Mile, where the police quickly mobilised to prevent any advance.

This is where the battle of the two groups commenced, as the UAF/SWP sought to take advantage of the police lines and confusion to peel people back to their rally, while the EAFA and others sought to find a side-street past the police lines. Throw into this a sighting of SDL members in the Bank Hotel — a pub right in the centre of the march (the building in the above photo) — and misinformation being introduced about where the SDL were and what was happening by prominent UAF members, and it isn’t difficult to imagine that things were getting a little chaotic. Eventually the sizeable EAFA group found their side street — barging past a single hapless police officer, who must have been unfamiliar with the story of King Canute — and took the bulk of the protesters with them. However, it was noticeable that with two factions competing for loyalty, many unaligned protesters simply gave up and drifted off, weakening both.

The SDL find that the latest stop on their world pub tour is just too good to leave.

Kettling the SDL

Despite the commotion a significant group moved forward with the EAFA and eventually reached the pub hosting the SDL — about 80 of them in total [update: The Scotsman is reporting 40]. At this point, echoing the scenes of Glasgow, the counter-protesters trapped the SDL in their pub. Now it just became a question of the police holding their ground until buses arrived to remove the SDL from the area. This took some hours, with increasing numbers of police flooding into the area and drones flying overhead, but eventually it happened and the SDL piled onto their buses — though not before they had all their details and photos taken.

Division appears in the SDL rank and file as one brave fighter forgets to swear at passing protesters.

There can be little doubt that the day was a success for the EAFA. Their spotters found the SDL early and the EAFA led a significant group to trap them in a relatively out-of-the-way pub before they could meet up or hold their rally. Other SDL members found themselves confronted by break-away groups of protesters and escorted or kettled by police — reports of which arrived from both the train station and 20 minutes away at the Grassmarket. This will hopefully set the SDL back and discourage any future rallies in Scotland, as well as establish the organisation necessary in Edinburgh to engage in future events.

It is only a shame that a rather grotesque public factional fight cost some of the momentum along the way. It must surely be seen as imperative to sort this situation out beforehand if the SDL return, with an acceptance that while the UAF’s passive rally is a good way to involve those who wouldn’t want to be involved in an EAFA-type strategy, it shouldn’t be pursued at the expense of those who are willing to carry out the important work of direct confrontation — and certainly not at the expense of a march which is already on its way.

Scottish Defence League members forced to leave city by
police

20 February 2010, STV

Thousands of anti-fascist protesters staged demonstrations
across Edinburgh on Saturday as members of the far-right
Scottish Defence League (SDL) gathered in the city.

Lothian and Borders Police drafted in officers from the
Strathclyde, Fife and Northumbria forces to bolster their
numbers in the capital - in all, it is understood that 900
police were on duty.

In one incident, scores of banner-waving activists
attempted to enter a bar opposite the Scottish Parliament.
Protesters said members of the SDL were inside Jenny Ha's
bar and vowed to stay in the area until the SDL members
left the city.

Police later loaded members of the league on to a bus to
leave. Officers had closed the Royal Mile, with the road
sealed off and hundreds of police on the street keeping
opposing groups apart.

It is believed that around 90 people were kept inside the
bar by police, who blocked the doors to stop trouble on the
street. Minor scuffles broke out when some SDL supporters
passed by anti-fascist activists behind police cordons
close to the building.

Meanwhile, inside, SDL supporters held up flags and banners
protesting against Islamic Sharia law.

Riot vans with officers wearing helmets eventually
surrounded the pub entrance while two double-decker buses
were driven towards the door.

Despite chants from SDL supporters that they would not be
moved, the SDL members made their way on to the buses
before being driven past two small counter-demonstrations
assembled along the Royal Mile and outside Holyrood.

Officers said no arrests were made and the street was
cleared by 4pm. A small number of SDL members were also
held in Edinburgh's Waverley station.

Student protester James Nesbitt, 23, from Glasgow, said:
"We had spotters out across the city looking for fascists
in pubs. We got here quickly but the police are doing
everything they can to keep us away from them. We're here
because people are frightened with the developments in the
far-right."

The incident happened as a formal anti-racism rally began
in Edinburgh city centre. At least 2,000 people are
believed to have taken part in the Scotland United rally,
which was prompted by SDL plans to gather in the capital
and protest against "militant Islam".

MSPs, charities, trade unions and faith groups were among
those taking part in the rally, and speaker Aamer Anwar
told STV News they planned to show there is no place for
racist and fascist organisations in Scotland.

Mr Anwar, one of the rally organisers, said the march would
serve as a warning to the SDL to "stay away". He had
previously said: "We are uniting, right across the
political spectrum, against their message of hatred. And we
are sending a out a positive message, one of unity and one
of celebration of our diversity.

"Let me be quite clear. They are testing the water and
complacency is not an option. Silence is not an option. In
the 1930s, the fascists scapegoated one section of the
community, the Jewish community. And now today, what we
have is a far right Nazi organisation that is scapegoating
the Muslim community and that's why we're uniting. And
every time they raise their heads they have be exposed for
what they are, which is fascists."

Osama Saeed of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, one of the
protest's organisers, said: "Today is a further humiliation
for the SDL. They only got ten minutes in the rain last
November in Glasgow. They didn't even get that today. This
is only due to good people coming out in numbers to take
over Edinburgh's streets. The threat from the far-right
cannot be ignored and simply wished away."

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, one of the
rally's guest speakers, said: "Today is about making a
stand against those who would seek to divide and saying to
them that their views are not welcome, as well as showing
to the world that Scotland will not tolerate such views."

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray added: "The message from
today's rally was upbeat and clear - Scotland will never
stand by and allow hatred and bigotry to have its day.
There is no place for - and Scotland will give no platform
to - those who would divide our communities and attack our
citizens."

The SDL describes itself as non-violent and pro-British. A
video posted under the group's name on You Tube urges
members to head to the capital to demonstrate against
"Islamification" in the UK.

Police had earlier said that the SDL had not sought
permission for a demonstration and it was unclear how many
people might come to take part. Scotland United's
organisers insisted any right-wing activist who tried to
march in the city should be removed immediately.

Lothian and Borders Police assistant chief constable Iain
Livingstone said: "We are pleased that today's activity in
the city centre passed off without major incident, and with
only five arrests being made for public order offences.

"At this time I'd like to thank those who participated in
the Scotland United rally and march, the majority of whom
were well behaved and willing to engage constructively with
police. I would also like to thank those members of the
public who may have experienced some disruption to their
day as a result of the activity in the city centre, for
their patience and co-operation."

A demonstration held in Glasgow in November by the SDL saw
around 100 protesters contained by police and then herded
onto buses out of the city, while thousands passed
peacefully through the city in an anti-fascism protest at
the same time.

In their online video urging members to attend the event in
Edinburgh, the SDL said it would "unite with their fellow
countrymen to defend this great nation. We will never
surrender".

It continued: "To carry on the fight against Muslim
extremists and Islamification in Great Britain, we will
never surrender. If you love this country and love Great
Britain then please join us in Edinburgh on February 20. We
all join as one."

The Scotland United rally, organised by Unite Against
Racism and Fascism, begun in Princes Street Gardens before
heading through the city centre.

The SDL is an offshoot of the English Defence league, which
has staged protests in Manchester and Birmingham which
resulted in violence.

ONE WAY TO STOP GENTRIFICATION

Anarchists in Berlin turn anger on new 'bourgeoisie'

Arsonists torch luxury cars as way of fighting the growing
gentrification of many areas of the city

Kate Connolly
The Observer
Sunday 10 January 2010

They come out mostly after dusk, typically carrying a
simple set of tools – a box of matches, and slow-burning
barbecue firelighters which are lit and placed next to a
car's tyre. By the time the flames have taken hold the
culprit has vanished, and the car is ablaze and beyond
recovery when the fire brigade arrives.

In Berlin, a growing band of leftwing car arsonists have
become the face of an increasingly vociferous campaign
against the gentrification of the German capital. In 2009,
216 mostly luxury cars were torched on the streets of the
city, compared with 135 the previous year.

So common is the practice that spotting the attacks has
become a popular pastime, spawning an obscure website,
"Burning Cars", where contributors track the models that
have been targeted. Brennende-autos.de lists the six most
recent cars as two Mercedes – the most popular target – a
Jeep, Range Rover, Mitsubishi and a rather more modest
Ford, which was burned almost beyond recognition on New
Year's Day on Hermannstrasse in the former West Berlin
district of Kreuzberg. The traditional home of leftwing
activism is where most have taken place.

The attacks have been spreading across the city, and are
influencing protest groups in other cities, like Hamburg,
where there has been a rise in car arson attacks,
particularly on police cars. The choice of vehicle has also
widened. Lorries belonging to DHL, the courier company,
were recently attacked because they serve the German
military in Afghanistan, as were German Railways' vehicles
– in retaliation for its role transporting nuclear waste by
train.

No single group is believed to be behind the attacks,
although last year one calling itself Bewegung für
Militanten Widerstand (Movement for Militant Resistance) –
with the provocative acronym BMW – admitted responsibility
for torching eight cars.

In a letter to a leftwing publication, the group said it
carried out the attacks in protest at the post-Berlin Wall
"transformation of poorer districts", such as Neukölln ,
Kreuzberg and Mitte where it said "established residents",
were being squeezed out by "acute gentrification".

Old flats and warehouses turned into luxury loft apartments
have driven up rents and house prices beyond most
residents' means. Since the fall of the wall more than 20
years ago, the process has changed the demographic profile
of many neighbourhoods. Prenzlauer Berg, in the former
communist East Berlin has undergone the most dramatic
change, turning from a workers' district into an affluent
quarter, which has lost around 60% of its original
residents since 1990.

Anger felt by those affected by the influx of the "new
bourgeoisie" extends to the disappearance of open spaces
and a growing indignation among communities that they are
not being consulted. The protest has recently spread to the
disused runways of Tempelhof airport, which was closed two
years ago. Authorities want to use to land for luxury
apartments. Opponents would like it to be developed as a
park.

"We have no voice in the way the city is changing," says
Jan, 26, a graphic designer and a member of an underground
anti-fascist movement in Kreuzberg. He sat in a cafe close
to a patch of land where East German police used to patrol
the border between East and West Berlin. "Until recently it
was where I used to walk my dog and meet friends," he said.
"Now look – they're building glassy apartment blocks there
for rich yuppies to move into."

Gentrification, he said, is leading to the closure of the
very places that have made Kreuzberg a fashionable and
desirable place to live, such as Bierhimmel (beer heaven),
a popular bar on Oranienstrasse, which has just been forced
to close by rising rents. Farther down the road, SO36, a
legendary nightclub, may go the same way because of
complaints from new residents – scathingly called schicki
mickis – about the noise.

A recent meeting at SO36 discussed non-violent ways to keep
out "unwanted" residents. Erwin Riedmann, a sociologist,
proposed an "uglification strategy" – to "go around wearing
a ripped vest and hang food in Lidl bags from the balcony
so that it looks like you don't have a fridge". The
suggestion drew laughs, but is a strategy being adopted.

An "anti-schicki micki" website, esregnetkaviar.de (it's
raining caviar), offers the following tips to make a
neighbourhood unattractive for newcomers: "Don't repair
broken windows; put foreign names on the doorbell, and
install satellite dishes."

Police say they are at a loss as to how to deal with the
problem, adding that they cannot patrol Berlin's 5,800km of
roads or control an estimated 1,100 leftwing extremists.
"It's extremely easy to set light to a car and by the time
the first flames are visible the culprit is at least two
streets away," said Dieter Glietsch, Berlin police chief.

Peter-Michael Haeberer, head of Berlin's LKA investigation
bureau, said there was a lack of willingness to examine the
issue. "You have to ask why does such a large part of
society so obviously feel excluded," he said.

LA HAINE - AN AMAZING FILM AND ONE WHICH BEST DEPICTS THE OPPRESSION OF WORKING CLASS YOUTH IN THE WEST

VIDEO: LONDON MILITANT PRO-PALESTINIAN YOUTH TAKE-ON BRITISH RIOT POLICE WHO PROTECTING ISRAELI EMBASSY - Sat 10th Jan 2009

INTERNATIONALIST UNITY WITH PALESTINE
NEW GENERATION, NEW METHODS, NEW MILITANCY

israel slaughters nearly 900 Palestinian men women and
children in Gaza in two weeks while the world looks on and
the Palestinians only have their armed resistance to
protect themselves.

Young people in britain who grew up seeing the
ineffectiveness of the anti-war mass marches of millions in
2003 in the lead up to the Iraq war are now taking matters
into their own hands. They want the israeli embassy
closed-down by any means necessary.

On Saturday 10th January they rattled off one of the high
gates which lead to the embassy while in hand-to-hand
fighting beating back five riot police. Nearly everyday for
the last two weeks militant youth in their many hundreds
have come back again and again to force the closure of the
embassy. Many are arrested, probably dozens will be
charged, and organisations like the Islamic Human Rights
Commission, are assisting them and their families in
dealing with the police and judicial system. Despite these
arrests and police provocations (directed dozens of times
against mothers and children, including trapping thousands
in a tunnel and beating people) they still come back with
bigger numbers, more wised up, prepared and determined.

This is simply the un-organised, spontaneous anger of the
youth, nothing more. There are no organisations or
individuals preparing, organising or directing this.

The youth are overwhelmingly Muslim and Arab youth, but
also with some youth from other and white backgrounds who
all want to see an end to us imperialism and its closest
ally and attack-dog apartheid israel.

There is no limit to the number young people ready to take
matters into their own hands while no-one can do anything
to stop israel's slaughter. These young people are not
incited by any leaders or organisations, as there are none
in Britain able to lead these young people into such
militant actions. What is inciting them is the treatment of
our/their Palestinian people in Gaza by israel.

What is inciting these militant pro-Palestine youth is
everytime british government leaders blame Hamas for the
situation; young people are called into action by being
outraged everytime israel, backed-up by nearly all the
sell-out Arab states, europe and the usa, kills and maims
scores more Palestinian women and children with impunity.

Young people all across the west are saying for the first
time, that their opinions which represent world opinion and
international law, if they are not enacted upon by the
oppressors, then we will start to directly challenge the
presence of the israeli embassy in britain - an illegal
foreign terrorist entity being supported by the british
government.

Sukant Chandan
London
Sons of Malcolm
11th Jan 2008

* First fights with police at israeli embassy Sun Dec 28th here

* Another one from Sat 03 Jan 2009 here
This is where the police trapped and beat protestors in a tunnel,
mainstream british newspaper The Guardian rerports here

* Another Guardian article about Saturday (yesterday) here featuring a good picture

Militant young pro-Palestinian posing with riot police shield
from yesterdays protest featured above in the video
(courtesy of Soviet Films)