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This week on Uprising —

* Award winning Palestinian photo-journalist speaks out on “truce” in Gaza
* The UN Considers a Global Arms Trade Treaty
* Katrina Survivors Pressure FEMA for Housing Rights
* Our weekly commentaries: Empire Notes and Black Agenda Report
* A Prison commentary on the first Anniversary of Tookie’s death

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Gaza on the Ground

GUEST: Mohammed Omer, correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Gaza

The United Nations and its partners this week launched their largest ever appeal for emergency aid to the occupied Palestinian territory. More than $453 million is needed after Israel cut off tax and customs funds to the Palestinian Authority when Hamas won elections earlier this year. According to the UN, two-thirds of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are now living in poverty. Meanwhile, a shaky truce continues between Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the Israeli government. Under the truce, Israel is supposed to halt offensive operations in Gaza while Palestinian groups are to suspend cross-border rocket launches and arms smuggling. But Israeli troops wounded two Palestinians who approached the Gaza border wall on Thursday, the second such shooting this week. And Palestinian militants have continued sporadic rocket fire into Israel that have caused no casualties. The Middle East Conflict is central to US interests, says the report by the Iraq Study Group released this week. According to the report, US goals in the Middle East cannot be achieved “unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.” It urges “renewed and sustained commitment by the United States on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria….and a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.” The report comes on the heels of the publication of former US president Jimmy Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

Read Mohammed Omer’s blog at www.rafahtoday.org.

Empire Notes on Iraq and Afghanistan

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on the evolving situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

UN Considers a Global Arms Trade Treaty

GUEST: Scott Stedjan, Legislative Secretary for the Friends Committee on National Legislation

More than 10 years ago, a group of Nobel Laureates, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, called for the development of an international code of conduct on arms transfers. According to the Congressional Research Service, the value of all arms transfer agreements worldwide in 2005 was approaching $45 billion, with the sales to the developing world accounting for two thirds of that total. Additionally the number of nations exporting weapons has also increased. On October 30 of this year, a committee of the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to start a process toward an Arms Trade Treaty. The vote passed by a margin of 139 to 1, with 24 abstentions. Not surprisingly, the single opposition vote was the United States. Still, the vote now paves the way for a feasibility report by the Secretary General and the establishment of a Group of Governmental Experts to consider the scope and content of the Treaty.

Read Scott Stedjan’s article in Foreign Policy in Focus: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3735.

Black Agenda Report on Katrina Victims

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about Katrina Victims. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Katrina, Rita Survivors Pressure FEMA for their Housing Rights

GUEST: Terrol Williams, Katrina survivor, member of ACORN

Yesterday, members of the New Orleans based community organization, ACORN, held press conferences in three different cities to call on FEMA to comply with a recent federal ruling on immediate restoration of housing aid to Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed on August 26th of this year by Public Citizen on behalf of ACORN. In fact, the court decision had established that FEMA improperly nullified aid to 11,000 hurricane evacuees. On Tuesday, FEMA appealed the ruling but remains under court order to reinstate aid. To this day the agency has done nothing to comply with the court order. In response, a motion was filed by ACORN’s attorneys asking Judge Richard J. Leon to require FEMA to submit a compliance plan on the restoration of aid. Leon has criticized the agency’s handling of the housing program and described the process as “Kafkaesque.” In the meantime, many Katrina and Rita survivors are struggling to pay the month’s rent and are even facing eviction all while FEMA drags its feet.

For more information, visit www.acorn.org.

Prison Commentary on the 1st Anniversary of Tookie’s Death

Stanley Tookie Williams was the co-founder of the notorious Los Angeles Crips gang. During his more than two decades in prison, Tookie authored a set of of award winning childrens’ books, and was nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Literature Prize. He was also visited in prison by Winnie Mandela. Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx played Tookie’s character in a cable TV film called “Redemption.” Stanley “Tookie” Williams was executed by the State of California nearly a year ago on December 13th for committing four murders. Today we’ll end the show by playing a commentary by prison inmate Dortell Williams on the first anniversary of Tookie’s execution.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.” — Blaise Pascal