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.

Attorneys Level Charges Of Genocide As Israel’s Impunity Continues

Israel ‘chose impunity over accountability and justice,’ a Gaza human rights defender tells MintPress amid rising charges of ‘genocide’ and calls for International Criminal Court indictments.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
A Palestinian brother and sister walk in front of a building which was destroyed in last summer's Israel-Hamas war, in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

NEW YORK --- Weeks after a number of groups in the Movement for Black Lives sparked controversy by releasing a platform, A Vision for Black Lives, that accused Israel of “genocide” in its treatment of Palestinians, a legal briefing from the Center for Constitutional Rights bolsters their claim. “While there has been recent criticism of those

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Sioux Blockade Succeeds In Halting Construction Of $3.8B Dakota Access Pipeline

‘It’s not a matter of if the pipeline breaks,’ Golden Globe-nominated actress Shailene Woodley tells MintPress. ‘It’s a matter of when. As we know, all pipelines break.’

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Activists in New York's Union Square rally in support of Native-Americans battling the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.

NEW YORK --- Lakota Sioux protesters blockading the planned route of a $3.8 billion, four-state oil pipeline won a short-term victory on Wednesday, when the project’s developer, Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas, agreed to halt construction near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota for at least a week. "The decision was made at

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The Oslo Impasse: A 23-Year-Old Deal That Benefits Israel At The Expense Of Palestine

Recent gunfire against Palestinian protesters in Area C shows the Palestinian Authority’s strange position more than two decades since the Oslo Accords were signed.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
President Clinton gestures as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing a peace accord, Monday September 13, 1993 on the South Lawn of the White House.

NEW YORK --- Palestinian Authority security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank crossed a strange line on Tuesday, firing into the air to disperse Palestinians protesting the construction of a new landfill near Ramallah that would service both Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents. The incident both illustrates the PA’s unique position

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Protests Surge Over Israeli ‘Administrative Detention’ Of Political Prisoner On Hunger Strike

Supporters warn that the Palestinian prisoner’s ‘administrative detention,’ immediately following a 14-and-a-half-year sentence in Israeli prisons, could set ‘dangerous new precedents.’

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Bilal Kayed protest

NEW YORK --- Demonstrations around the world have demanded that Israel free Bilal Kayed as the imprisoned Palestinian, who has been on a prolonged hunger strike against his “administrative detention,” faces new Israeli threats of forcible treatment if he loses consciousness. “Activists in Palestine are fully aware of what is going on at the

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Protesters Demand An End To Police As They #ShutDownCityHallNYC

‘The only way that we can see an end to police violence is to abolish the police,’ an organizer told MintPress the morning after demonstrators occupied public spaces in lower Manhattan.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
#ShutDownCityHallNYC

NEW YORK --- On Monday, over a dozen black and solidarity groups launched an ongoing occupation of New York’s City Hall Park and other public areas in lower Manhattan. “The only way that we can see an end to police violence is to abolish the police,” Nabil Hassein, an organizer with Millions March NYC, which announced the demonstration and

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Supporters Mobilize For ‘The Last Chance’ To Win Leonard Peltier’s Freedom

‘I believe that this President is my last hope for freedom, and I will surely die here if I am not released by January 20, 2017,’ the imprisoned American Indian Movement activist wrote last month.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron

NEW YORK --- As President Barack Obama's final term in office draws to a close, supporters of imprisoned American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier are escalating their demands for his release through executive clemency. “Since Obama will be in office less than a year, in the coming months, Leonard's supporters plan to work as hard as

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Millions Mourn The Death Of Muhammad Ali As The Black-Palestinian Solidarity He Championed Continues

‘I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders,’ Muhammad Ali said during a 1974 visit to Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Muhammed Ali in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, 1974.

NEW YORK --- Legendary boxer, Islamic missionary, outspoken social commentator and activist Muhammad Ali leaves behind a legacy of forging ties between black and Palestinian struggles that, both movements say, continues to grow. Aside from his athletic prowess as the world’s only three-time lineal heavyweight boxing champion, many today remember

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