Joe Catron

Joe Catron is a MintPress News contributing journalist. He covers Palestine and Israel and other human rights issues. Catron has written frequently for Electronic Intifada and Middle East Eye, and co-edited The Prisoners' Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, an anthology of accounts by detainees freed in the 2011 prisoner exchange.

Not Just Standing Rock: Pipelines Threaten Native Lands Across The Country

‘We are probably going to have to resist one pipeline at a time for many decades to come, and maybe longer,’ a Cherokee researcher tells MintPress as a Ramapough Lunaape chief says, ‘We need help now.’

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Members of the Ramapough Lunaap demonstrate during the Clean Energy March in Philadelphia on July 24, 2016. (Photo: Mark Dixon/flickr/cc)

NEW YORK --- As completion of the Dakota Access pipeline remains on standby after the Army Corps of Engineers announced on Sunday that it would not authorize the development company to drill under the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, similar projects continue to encroach on indigenous communities across the

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Obama, Not Trump, May Be The Biggest Threat To The Iran Deal

While the president-elect does pose a threat to the Iran deal, its gravest perils come from the Obama administration that negotiated it and now claims it as a landmark achievement.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
President Barack Obama speaks about the nuclear deal with Iran, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015, at American University in Washington. The president said the nuclear deal with Iran builds on the tradition of strong diplomacy that won the Cold War without firing any shots. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

NEW YORK --- Despite President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to undermine the nuclear agreement reached by Iran and the P5+1 world powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- in July 2015, the deal faces more serious danger from President Barack Obama’s failure to push for its full implementation. “In

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Palestinians: Trump May Not Be Better For Palestine, But He Can’t Be Worse

Donald Trump careened wildly between conflicting positions throughout his campaign, including his stance toward the pro-Israel establishment, leaving Palestinians and their supporters to wonder what a Trump administration will mean for the region.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the 2016 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference at the Verizon Center, on Monday, March 21, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

NEW YORK --- Despite pro-Israel positions taken by President-elect Donald Trump during the latter part of his campaign, as well as his likely appointments of Israel backers to key offices, many Palestinian-Americans and their supporters doubt his administration will make things any worse for Palestinians. “Trump's presidency, just like those

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The Election Revealed More About The Democratic Slump Than A ‘Trump Surge’

The biggest story of the 2016 presidential election is not a ‘Trump surge,’ but a Democratic collapse.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
A woman in the audience hold up fabric that reads "Ignoring DNC's Corruption Condones It!" as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Adams City High School in Commerce City, Colo., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

NEW YORK --- Few observers were surprised by Donald Trump’s weak performance in last week’s presidential election. The Republican candidate’s 60.5 million popular votes put him on a par with his predecessors, Mitt Romney and John McCain, neither of whom came close to beating President Barack Obama in 2012 or 2008. But even fewer expected the

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Anti-War Movement Anticipates More War Under A Clinton Presidency

‘Clinton is one of the biggest war-mongers the country has,’ an anti-war organizer tells MintPress News as the candidate’s popularity sinks to record lows ahead of Election Day.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 5, 2012.

NEW YORK --- As the bizarre 2016 presidential election nears its end, activists in the United States are considering the prospects for war and peace under the next administration. And with Hillary Clinton leading comfortably in most polls, the Democratic nominee’s militaristic record, as well as her promises to expand the use of force, are

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Will Rasmea Odeh’s Appeal Expose Israeli Prison Torture In A US Court?

A federal court admitted Odeh’s conviction from an Israeli military court while excluding evidence that interrogators obtained it through physical and sexual torture.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Rasmea Odeh smiles after leaving federal court in Detroit Thursday, March 12, 2015. A judge sentenced the Chicago activist to 18 months in federal prison Thursday for failing to disclose her convictions for bombings in Israel when she applied to be a U.S. citizen. Odeh, 67, also was stripped of her citizenship and eventually will be deported. But she will remain free while she appeals the case.

DETROIT --- A federal hearing on Nov. 29 could determine whether the details of Israel’s torture of Palestinian prisoners will be aired in an American courtroom. Rasmea Odeh, a 69-year-old leader of Chicago’s Palestinian-American community, is appealing her 2014 conviction on charges of unlawful procurement of naturalization. If her

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ABC, NBC Censor Largest Native Mobilization In Decades Against Dakota Access Pipeline

Native nations across the continent sign a new treaty opposing oilsands expansion as anthropologists, historians and museums condemn destruction of Sioux sites, but you wouldn’t know it from the mainstream media.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rally in opposition of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in front of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, in Washington.

NEW YORK --- As thousands of supporters around the world have joined demonstrations in solidarity with Native land and water defenders blocking the planned Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, the largest Native mobilization in decades remains absent from some of the biggest news media in the United

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