FLASHPOINTS

Israeli Commandoes landing on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

In dedication to the early morning attack on the Freedom Flotilla off the coast of Gaza, where at least 10 humanitarian activists were killed by Israeli commandos, we’ll speak to long time anti-occupation activist Adam Shapiro and UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories for the UNHCR, Richard Falk; we’ll also have a report from the Gaza strip and we’ll speak with Ali Abunimah.

————————————-

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Shakeed Saed, Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California

Sandra Ruch, Gaza Freedom March

Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories for the UN Human Rights Council

Adam Shapiro, Partner of a person aboard one of the ships

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada

Amjad Shawa, Coordinator of the Palestinian NGO Network and health worker in Gaza

Norman Finkelstein - American Radical

BP oil smothers the shores of Louisiana’s coastline today, confirming people’s worst fears in this unprecedented oil spill that scientists say equals an Exxon Valdez-size spill every three days; we’ll speak to shrimper and local activist Kindra Arnesen; we’ll also hear from our special correspondent on the coast Larry Everest; we’ll have our regular weekly edition of Community Business with Catherine Austin Fitts, who will report on the devastating impact the Wall Street meltdown has had on Calpirg, the largest pension fund in the country; and we broadcast excerpts of American Radical, a documentary film about historian and scholar Norman Finkelstein.

————

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Kindra Arnesen, shrimper and local activist

Larry Everest, historian and author

Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Network

This is what "Negev Development" funded by the JNF looks like in Khashm Zanna, an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev. (International Jewish Anti-zionist Network)

We speak to UC Berkeley student activists after the hunger strike officially ended last night as the administration agreed to negotiate towards their demands, we’ll talk to them about what happens next and why one of the students remains on a hunger strike on his way to Arizona; plus, JR and the Block Report speak with Ramona Africa, the lone adult survivor of the MOVE headquarters bombing by police 25 years ago in Philadelphia; and Bedouin Palestinian attorney Rawia Abu Rabia of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel discusses the entrenched institutionalized racism and discrimination inside the state against its indigenous citizens, as home demolitions and attacks on civil rights leaders continue apace.

————–

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Alejandro Lara Briseño and Ricardo Gomez, UC Berkeley student hunger strikers

Ramona Africa, MOVE

Rawia Abu Rabia,  social justice activist and attorney,  Association for Civil Rights in Israel

Norman Finkelstein and Lowkey

Norman Finkelstein talks about his new book, This Time, We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion, in which he documents the 2008-2009 massacres by the Israeli military and sets forth possibilities for redemption as the world’s conscience galvanized in outrage; also, British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, who joins Finkelstein in his speaking event this week in Berkeley, discusses the powerful blending of hip hop and activism, we’ll also hear some of his music; and a look back at the Kent State massacre forty years later as new testimonies reveal shocking details.

————–

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Norman Finkelstein, author, scholar and historian

Lowkey, British-Iraqi hip hop artist

EVENT:

Thursday, May 13^th, 7:30pm, Norman Finkelstein and Lowkey; King Middle

School, Rose st. in North Berkeley. More information: www.mecaforpeace.org or 510-548- 0542

Olympia-Rafah Mural Project

The Rachel Corrie foundation joins dozens of other activist organizations fighting against Israeli apartheid through the arts and self-expression, Cindy Corrie joins Susan Greene of the Break the Silence Mural Project and Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance in the Flashpoints studio to talk about a massive mural in downtown Olympia, Washington; also, we’ll have special coverage of the Poor People’s March to Fulfill the Dream, the march that started in Louisiana is heading for New Orleans, we pick up the story in Memphis, Tennessee; JR and the Block Report speak to Holly Works, a protester still facing trumped-up felony charges around the Oscar Grant rebellions in Oakland last year; and a new commentary on Arizona’s racist anti-immigrant legislation by political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.

————

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Susan Greene, Breaking the Silence and Olympia-Rafah Mural Project

Cindy Corrie, Rachel Corrie Foundation

Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children’s Alliance

Cheri Honkala, National Organizer for Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign

Abel Francisco, marcher

JR with Holly Works

Mumia Abu Jamal, Prison Radio

cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Ali Abunimah and university student organizers talk about last night’s vote at UC Berkeley to uphold the veto on divestment, we’ll discuss the technical defeat but the moral victory of the vote and the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement across the country and across the world; also, thousands of Oakland teachers go on strike to defend public education, we’ll hear voices from educators and students demanding fair contracts and salaries.

———–

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

Shoaib Kamil, UC Berkeley Task Force on Divestment

Loubna Qatami, Palestinian Youth Network

Jesse Strauss on assignment in Oakland

Ahmed Deeb before he bled to death from the Israeli-fired explosive bullet which severed his femoral artery. (Photo credit: Max Ajl)

Israeli occupation forces shoot and kill an unarmed Palestinian protester inside the Gaza Strip, the 9th protester to be shot in less than a month, we’ll have a full report from journalist and activist Eva Bartlett in Gaza; also, Sonoma County in Northern California poised to pass an unprecedented vote in support of immigrant rights and civil rights, we’ll speak to Evelina Molina on the Sonoma Human Rights Commission on what this means in the context of accelerated federal anti-immigration policies; plus, we discuss Goldman Sachs and the state of corporate plundering of the American people on Community Business with Catherine Austin Fitts; and Dr. Helen Caldicott delivers a riveting speech on nuclear energy, nuclear power, and nuclear danger.

———

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Eva Bartlett, ISM activist and journalist

Evelina Molina, Sonoma County Human Rights Commission and Flashpoints producer

Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Network

Dr. Helen Caldicott, anti-nuclear author and scholar. Thank you to If You Love This Planet for the material.

A Palestinian teenager sits outside a protest tent in Silwan, next to a site where Israeli settlers are excavating a tunnel. (Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada)

Rene Saucedo of the San Francisco Day Labor Center reports back from City Hall on a day of protest against Arizona’s racist, anti-immigrant legislation SB 1070; also, Israel plans to build more illegal settlement colonies in occupied East Jerusalem as Palestinians face violent repression by settlers and Israeli forces; we’ll have an in-depth discussion on the state of emergency facing Haitians three months after the devastating earthquake as relief and food runs out; and commentaries by death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal.

———–

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Rene Saucedo, Director, SF Day Labor Center

Zakaria Odeh, Director, Civic Coalition to Defend Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem

Ryan Ikeda, filmmaker and high school teacher

Mumia Abu Jamal, political prisoner, journalist

Jordan Flaherty: Floodlines

New Orleans police officers harass, discriminate and sexually assault members of the Black gay and transgender community, we’ll speak to Jordan Flaherty who peels back the layers of state violence against people in New Orleans, we’ll also speak with a member of the trans community who is labeled as a sex offender and has been forced into sex by a police officer because of her transgender identity; also, Palestinians face rampant attacks by ultra-right wing Jewish settlers, we’ll speak with Jamal Jumaa of the Stop the Wall Campaign about the critical situation in occupied Palestine; and Ed Rosenthal stops by to talk about the prospects for legalization of marijuana in California.

————

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Ed Rosenthal, author and marijuana advocate

Jamal Juma’, Stop the Wall Campaign

Jordan Flaherty, editor of Left Turn Magazine, journalist, and author, Floodlines

READ: New Complaints of Police Violence in New Orleans

Wendi Cooper, health worker, transgender activist and advocate

Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

We’ll speak to our special correspondent Ahmed Habib about the current situation inside US-occupied Iraq, as the theater of elections and vote recounts distract the mainstream media from the ongoing destruction of Iraqi lives across the country; and Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff of Project Censored talk about the truth emergency in the US and run down several censored news stories you may have missed this year if you just watched the evening news or read the New York Times.

————

LISTEN ONLINE:
Download this clip
Play this clip in your Computer’s media player

Guests:

Ahmed Habib, journalist and poet

Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips, Project Censored

EVENT: