• The Popular Committee of Bil’in held a demonstration last night to protest the nightly raids that have taken place in their village over the past three weeks, during which a total of 17 people have been arrested. The video shows about 120 protesters—Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists—chanting and marching toward the Separation Wall with multi-colored lights and receiving only minimal disturbance from the Israeli military.

• The 25 workers occupying the Vestas wind plant on the Isle of Wight have accused their managers and the police of trying to starve them out, as three people attempting to deliver food supplies were arrested outside.

• Armenians in cities across the US protested Chevron yesterday in response to an Associated Press report that the corporation was secretly lobbying against official US recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

• About two dozen wild horse advocates rallied outside the state capitol in Carson City to protest the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s failure to cooperate with nonprofits that find homes for the stray animals.

• Government employees in the northernmost state of India began a two-day strike yesterday to demand better salary and benefits.

BBC News reported on a controversial ad by Israeli telecommunications company Cellcom, which has been “derided by critics for trivializing the fraught issue of the separation barrier and portraying the Palestinians as an invisible other.”

The Cellcom advert, which first aired earlier in July, opens with a football landing on the bonnet of an Israeli military jeep patrolling along the West Bank separation barrier.

After initial apprehension, one of the soldiers kicks the ball back over the high wall and seconds later it comes flying over once again.

Seeing the opportunity for an impromptu kick-about, the troops call in reinforcements, more jeeps arrive and everyone enjoys themselves with an upbeat tune playing in the background.

“After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun,” says the voiceover.

In response, Palestinian activists have made their own video, depicting their actual attempts to play soccer with Israeli troops at the weekly nonviolent protests in Bi’lin. The footage, which is coupled with the same playful music on the Cellcom ad, shows their initial attempt at play being met with tear gas.

The BBC report hits on all the key points of the wall: its descruction of Palestinian life, its seperation of families, its taking of Palestinian land, and even its illegal status, as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 2004.

Although the Israeli military gets its say, claiming that the protesters often throw rocks and Molotov cocktails, we’ve heard on this blog from Anna Brown, who’s been with the Bi’lin protesters, that they are committed to nonviolence. If there are examples of violence—rock throwing is far more likely, as children are known to do it—then it is clearly an example of David vs. Goliath.

The BBC essentially notes this by saying that two protesters have been killed recently, as compared to the Israeli military’s complaint of  damage to security infrastructure. Of course, any act of Palestinian violence should not be condoned, but neither should it be compared to the suffering inflicted upon them by the Israeli military and government.

Hopefully this Palestinian video response will continue to draw attention to their hard fought and overlooked attemps to use nonviolence as a means to end the occupation.

In this hilarious video, John Hargrave of the humor website Zug.com pranks Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg by making him the victim of his own company’s poor privacy policies. In an article explaining the prank—which is just as funny as the video—Hargrave says he signed up for a “free cell phone records” site to see if he could find the unlisted numbers and home addresses of the big three telecom CEOs. Unfortunately, only Seidenberg had a unique enough name to produce a singular result. And so he became the patsy.

Hargrave’s prank invokes a good mixture of seriousness and humor. Speaking through a bullhorn he calls on Seidenberg to “Please do a better job protecting your customers’ cell phone records. Everyone has the right to privacy, including you Ivan. When we don’t have privacy then freaks with bullhorns start showing up.” He then repeatedly uses the Verizon catchphrase, “Can you hear me now?” Each time increasing the volume of his megaphone.

Ultimately, Hargrave is chased away by “a middle-aged man, walking quickly with his large dog.” But that man, unfortunately, was not Ivan, just an angry member of his private community.

I can’t help but wish, just a little bit, that Hargrave had the nerve to stick around and not leave saying, “Sorry about that!” Although I certainly understand how a vicious and fast approaching dog, as he explains it, can be quite frightening, Hargrave did have a companion filming the whole event. It would have been interesting to at least ask Seidenberg’s neighbor what he thought of Verizon’s inadequate security measures.

Fortunately, viral videos have a force behind them that can more than make up for such shortcomings. It doesn’t matter that Seidenberg never showed up or that Hargrave never elicited a substantial response from the neighbors. They look like fools because Hargrave has humor, truth and editing on his side.

In some sense, the real protest is taking place online. Sure, Hargrave committed a physical solitary action. But the full effect of it is only now beginning to be seen and felt, as others are able to virtually engage by watching and then spreading the word. Some 4,500 to be exact.

I’m guessing Ivan Seidenberg can hear John Hargrave now.

Seven climate activists dressed as astronauts stood up during yesterday's Environment and Public Works Senate hearing and unfurled banners that read: “What can the US do in 10 years?” and “Put a man on the moon (check); cut co2 40% (dotted-line-check).”

• A Baptist preacher and community organizer in the racially and economically segregated town of Benton Harbor Michigan is organizing a boycott and pickett of a private golf course built atop a public park.

• Power station employees in Mumbai have gone on indefinite strike after the government failed to resolve their demands for a salary hike.

• After hearing of the sit-in being staged by Vestas wind farm employees on the Isle of Wight, a number of trade unionists in Portsmouth, England agreed to catch the next boat and set up a picket outside.

• Employees of a hospital in northeastern India staged a sit-in to protest a gun firing incident near the hospital’s blood bank last week.

• An indigenous group in Mexico won land rights from the state government in a ruling that stems from a June 29 incident in which men armed with pistols in the employ of local political bosses tried to stop the group’s occupation of a 700-hectare area near the Pacific coast.

Indian Country Today reported on the near two-month standoff between Canadian Mohawks and the Canadian government over the arming of border guards stationed on reservation land, which has caused serious economic issues for all parties involved (click photo to read more).

• The Nation published an essay by Huwaida Arraf of the Free Gaza Movement in which she reflects on her group’s most recent failed attempt to enter Gaza and the general plight of the Palestinian people.

• openDemocracy says the recent victory of Chinese internet users over a government plan to monitor access is a sign of their emerging political power.

• NACLA Report on the Americas has a great piece about Peruvian president Alan García’s continuing war against the indigenous people, despite the recent revocation of his decrees to open Amazonian land to development.

• ABC News in Australia reported on a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, where 150 people have been protesting poor housing conditions in their government-owned and overcrowded homes, as well as federal intervention in matters such as income management.

• Inter-Press Service reported on a movement made up of 25 international, national and local groups calling on the Colombian government to halt the gold exploration activities of the South Africa-based mining giant AngloGold Ashanti.

• Nigerian newspaper This Day says the country is gradually being shut down by perpetual industrial actions from nearly every sector.

• The Socialist Worker has a piece explaining how the LGBT people and their allies managed to build one of the largest civil rights movements in San Diego, one of the most conservative cities in the state.

• Global Voices examined the persecution of bloggers in Honduras by hackers and the complicity of internet giants Google.

• The Honduran people intensified protests yesterday following Sunday’s announcement that constitutional President Manuel Zelaya will return to his country next weekend.

• Thousands took to the streets this week to protest Disney’s attempt to make health insurance unaffordable for its hotel employees.

• California State University students have begun a a 48-hour vigil to protest expected cutbacks affecting staff and faculty.

• A Pennsylvania woman and ex-police officer has begun a 225 mile walk from the Poconos to Washington DC to raise awareness for discrimination against women in law enforcement.

• Workers from the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight who are set to lose their jobs are staging a sit-in protest at the firm’s offices.

• Hundreds of Italian film-makers and actors held black balloons in Rome yesterday to protest cuts in state funding for the arts.

• Independent newspaper publishers and journalists of Niger have begun a one-week strike to protest President Tandja’s plans to take punitive actions against any media criticism of his upcoming referendum.

• Workers from South African paper, chemical and pharmaceutical companies have started striking over a pay dispute.

• The Fisheries Minister has joined British activists, writers, actors and artists in calling on the Japanese fish restaurant chain Nobu to stop serving endangered bluefin tuna, saying he would boycott the chain.

I just stumbled across this cartoon. And everything about it confuses me. I sort of feel like Elaine in that episode of Seinfeld where she drives herself crazy trying to understand the meaning of a New Yorker cartoon, only to later find out from the editor that he didn’t understand it either—the joke being that the New Yorker gets away with printing nonsense because everyone just assumes it’s over their head.

Well, this cartoon has that same New Yorker smarter-than-thou quality to it, with text that almost seems like it was thought up by someone other than the artist. Except, instead of soliciting readers, the artist went straight to the guy who writes Ziggy and asked him to slap some depressingly ironic text on it.

My friend Jason, who illustrates his own great web comic, speculated that the two amorphous bearded blobs are supposed to be philosophers, wise men or perhaps even gods on Mount Olympus and they’re essentially riffing on the old adage that “violence never solves anything.” Except, they’re taking it one step further and essentially saying nothing works.

Well, of course that’s not true. Aside from the scores of historical case studies showing the effectiveness of nonviolence (against everything from the Nazis to murderous dictatorships), there are countless smaller efforts taking place every day, which we try to mention on this blog.

While I don’t think the artist’s intention was to knock non-violence per-se (although he does seem to have a history of doing so), it’s the de facto acceptance of defeatism this comic seeks to elicit that bothers me most. That’s not to say we can’t take or even make a joke about nonviolence.

Another friend reminded me of a story Dan Berrigan tells about getting stuck in an elevator at some courthouse for a hearing on one of his many civil disobedience actions. Amidst the stalled crowd of prosecutors and other government workers unfriendly to his actions, he joked, “We’re used to going nowhere.”

How is that different from this cartoon? Well, the joke isn’t that nonviolence is a lost cause. It’s that nonviolence is the only cause, and therefore involves a persistent stubbornness that one must joke about to retain sanity.

That being said, I still don’t think I entirely get what’s going on in this comic. Jason, who seemed to have come as close to understanding it as anyone I’ve asked, offered up one other possibility that I like a lot more: “Maybe they’ve been cut in half as a result of their original violent approach to ‘solving things’, and now they can’t get their nonviolent approach to work either because they got no arms and legs to move around with!”

Thus proving Gandhi’s famous saying: An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people in Salt Lake City staged a "kiss-in" to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

• More than 5,000 ethnic Uighurs rallied in Kazakhstan’s largest city yesterday to protest China’s use of deadly force to quash Uighur protests this month.

• Members of Green Course and Greenpeace delivered over 1,000 letters to Israel’s national infrastructures planning committee and staged a demonstration outside the building yesterday to protest the planned construction of a coal-fired power plant.

• Thousands gathered in Karwar, India to protest plans for a new thermal power plant, which they fear will hurt local fisherman, as well as the region’s ecology.

• Protesters were arrested for blocking Governor Schwarzenegger’s home in L.A. as they demanded the California budget continue to provide a social safety net for people with disabilities.

• The International Transport Workers’ Federation called on its 4.5 million members to boycott ships flying the Honduran flag to protest the military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

• Residents of a small town in England are protesting plans for a nearby asbestos transfer station, which they fear will harm the air quality.

• Thirty-six Iranian army officers were arrested for planning to attend a protest rally in their military uniforms as an act of political defiance.

• Dozens gathered to protest the court mandated eviction of an Arab family’s home in East Jeruslam. The group—comprised of local politicans and activists—fear this is part of a larger effort by the Israeli government to promote the Judaization of the eastern city.

In this video, a satirical comedy group from Australia called the Chasers, confronts torture lawyer John Yoo during one of his recent classes at Berkeley. With a black hood over his head, the unidentified man stands on his chair, outstreches his arms and asks the professor, “How long can I be required to stand here ’til it counts as torture?”

Rather than respond, Yoo simply apologizes for having to end class. As he grabs his stuff and prepares to leave, the Chaser says, “If this is awkward for you, it’s very uncomfortable for me. I can tell you.”

The laughs that follow seem to be from a laugh track or from their TV show‘s audience rather than the students in the class, but I’m not entirely sure. One student can definitely be heard asking the protester to please leave. Pretty sad.

Before Yoo – one of the authors of the Bush administration’s torture policy – makes it through the door, the Chaser gets in one last barb. “I’d love to move, but every time I do my balls get buzzed.” The students then clap, and at the last moment, Yoo is saved by a woman (probably from the administration) who comes through the door to remove the hooded man.

Again it’s hard to tell whether the students are approving of the protest that was about to cut their expensive class short or somehow supporting their teacher. Unfortunately, my guess is that most of those who paid big money to learn from Yoo are not particularly disturbed by his disturbing history.

As a side note, I’m often turned off when I see protesters confront those in power – or more often former officials – face-to-face, because of how nasty it can get. (This video of Code Pink’s Desiree Fairooz and Medea Benjamin yelling “war criminal” in Donald Rumsfeld’s face at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner a couple months ago is the perfect example. It almost made me feel bad for Rummy, which is not the sign of a constructive protest.) But I think the fact that the Chaser remained calm and challenged Yoo somewhat comedically makes this particular interaction more enjoyable.

• At the Power Shift conference in Australia last weekend, attendees performed in this fantastic flash “dance” mob (video above) – a creative new form of protest.  This historic event saw many of Australia’s largest youth organizations gathered together in Sydney to demand – and create – a power shift to renewable energy, green jobs and safe climate future.

• About 24,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Toronto – which includes workers in child care, public health, emergency services, garbage and recycling, social services, planning, permits, inspections, water and sewage treatment, parks and recreation, and animal services – enter the 27th day of their strike for a new contract today.

• Workers from First Bus in Aberdeen, Scotland are staging the 24-hour walkout after union leaders and management failed to reach an agreement on wages.

• Doctors in Pakistan yesterday observed a hunger strike to press the government to take steps for an early and safe recovery of a doctor who was kidnapped last month.

• Medical students in India gave up their protest and fast, which led to more than 30 hunger strikers being hospitalized over the last two weeks, yesterday afternoon after Health Department officials assured them that their demands for increased stipend would be met.

• Niger’s privately owned press will begin a one-week strike Monday in a bid to reverse a presidential decree that provides for sanctions against the media without warning. Radio and television stations will participate in the strike on July 26.

• Prisoners at the US-run Bagram military jail have been staging a mass protest over the past two weeks against their indefinite captivity. According to family members and attorneys, dozens of prisoners have refused to leave their cells since July 1st.

• A group of around 100 US peace activists from Viva Palestina, including former Democratic Congress member Cynthia McKinney, have arrived in the Gaza Strip carrying humanitarian aid.