That same day Israeli soldiers shot eight-year-old Palestinian Ali Jawarish at close range, leaving him brain dead. Israeli troops claim that the rubber-coated bullet lodged in Jawarish's skull was meant for an older youth who was throwing rocks at them. Officially, Israeli forces are barred from firing the bullets at youth, must not shoot within 40 yards of their target, and must aim for legs.

Opposition forces brew in Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing greater divisions, both within his Likud party and among opposition parties. The opposition Labor party organized a memorial demonstration of some 120,000 people on the second anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin November 8, which included an amorphous call for "peace."

Floods plague Somali villages
Torrential rains in Somalia that began October 5 have flooded villages in the Juba Valley, home to more than 1 million people. A UNICEF report place the death toll at more than 1,000. Rising waters threaten to ruin stockpiled food and other supplies. At least 11,000 head of cattle have died. The European Union said on November 13, that it would allocate a mere $2.5 million in aid. Washington and other imperialist governments have been stingy with aid, following the 1995 ousting of so-called humanitarian forces that occupied the country.

In 1992 the UN, and later the U.S. government, sent thousands of troops into that country under the pretext of bringing humanitarian aid to the famine-struck country.

Cops fire on East Timor students
On November 14 Indonesian troops and riot cops fired shots into a crowd of 300 students from the University of East Timor and two high schools who gathered after a group of youth chased down undercover agents who were snooping around the campus. The incident took place just two days after students there held a rally to commemorate the massacre of pro-independence activists gunned down by the military in 1991. Five students were injured, including one who "received a life-threatening gunshot wound in the neck," according to an Amnesty International report. Unnamed students said two activists were killed, while cops denied the accusation, claiming they only fired warning shots.

New president elected in Ireland
Mary McAleese, candidate of the ruling Fianna Fail and Progressive Democratic parties, was elected president of the Republic of Ireland October 31. She defeated Fine Gael Party candidate Mary Banotti, independent candidate Rosemary Scallion, Labor Party choice Adi Roche, and ex-cop Derek Nally, who finished last.

The pro-British Unionist party had called for McAleese, who is from Northern Ireland, to quit the race, citing leaked government documents claiming that McAleese was a closet supporter of the nationalist party Sinn Fein. She denied all allegations of being a Sinn Fein sympathizer or supporter. During the campaign, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams stated that he would back McAleese - if he were allowed to vote in the Republic.

Abortion doctor shot in Canada
On November 11 Jack Fainman, a Winnipeg obstetrician and gynecologist, was wounded in the shoulder by a bullet that came through a window of his home. There have been two other shootings of doctors who perform abortions as part of their practice in the last four years.

Henry Morgenthaler, a physician who served prison time in the 1970s fighting to establish women's right to choose abortion, said the attack is aimed "to scare doctors off from performing abortions." But he continued, "The service we are providing women is absolutely essential." The assault was also denounced by the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League and the British Columbia Coalition for Abortion Clinics.

Congress eases immigration law
U.S. Congress in early November slightly eased parts of an anti-immigration law passed in 1996 that requires undocumented workers applying for legal status to first leave the country. Related laws deny reentry for 3 - 10 years to workers without papers who leave the country. Washington granted an extension through Jan. 14, 1998, to about 1 million workers with families or employer sponsors in the United States who wish to apply for residency and stay in the United States while the application is processed by paying a $1,000 fine. Anyone seeking residence after January 14 will still be subject to the 1996 law.

Another bill, already sent to the White House, calls for legal status for 150,000 Nicaraguans who left during the revolution there in the 1980s, 5,000 Cubans who have arrived over the past two years, and 250,000 Salvadorans and Guatemalans. Haitian rights activists held protests in Miami and Washington, D.C., demanding that Haitians who fled after the 1991 rightist coup in that country be included in the bill, but they were not successful.

School bans `The Color Purple'

The Jackson County School Board in West Virginia banned Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning book The Color Purple, a novel about a Black family in the South during Jim Crow segregation. Some 15 other books were banned including one titled, 100 Q & A About AIDS. Walker's book, unlike the others, was dismissed without a review. The school board said the books were being banned because of sexually explicit language, homosexual content, and/or violent imagery. Ripley High School principle Jack Wiseman disagreed with the board decision, describing it as an attempt "to shield all students from homosexuality," he said.

Mexico gov't rules against union
Welders at Han Young, an automotive chassis-making factory in Tijuana, Mexico, voted 54 - 32 in favor of replacing their current government-controlled union with an independent one. The October 6 vote was rejected by the Tijuana Labor Board on two counts. First, it said the union workers voted to affiliate to was for metal workers. Second, the labor board argued that the vote was not sufficient evidence to conclude the workers wanted a new union.

Land mines are `weapon of poor'
Paris, London, and other imperialist regimes recently made a big deal of signing a treaty banning the manufacturing and use of land mines. Washington refused to sign, since it wasn't granted an exemption to continue to use mines in Korea, but then launched a political campaign supposedly to eliminate the threat of land mines to civilians.

Meanwhile, Cuban Brig. Gen. Luis Pe'rez Róspide, director of Cuba's Union of Military Industries, pointed out that this was not discussed with the working people and peasants around the world who are threatened by nuclear weapons, but possess none of their own. "Land mines are the weapon of the poor," Róspide declared. He is responsible for making sure that every Cuban has a basic defense kit consisting of a rifle, a land mine, and a grenade.

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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