new essay by petras - see attached - please confirm receipt of essay - jpetras
Attachment(s) from James Petras
1 of 1 File(s)
(JTA) -- A federal judge in Seattle ruled that King County, Wash., did not violate the First Amendment rights of a pro-Palestinian group when it refused to run an Israel 'War Crimes' ad campaign.
Judge Richard Jones on Feb. 18 denied a request to force the Metro Transit system to run the ads.
"Because King County's policy and practice indicates that it consistently applied content restrictions on advertising to further its purpose of using its property to provide orderly and safe public transportation, the forum at issue is a limited public forum," the judge wrote in his ruling.
Because it is a limited public forum, the acceptance of ads by the Metro Transit system is not subject to First Amendment protections, according to the ruling.
The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle in January charging that King County violated the campaign's First Amendment rights. The suit asked the court to order the county to place the ad for four weeks on the sides of 12 buses, as the Metro Transit system and its ad agency originally agreed to do.
The Seattle Midwest Awareness Campaign had paid $1,794 to place the advertisements on 12 buses beginning last Dec. 27 -- the second anniversary of the day Israel entered Gaza to stop rocket attacks on its southern communities. The ads feature a group of children looking at a demolished building under the heading "Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work."
Three days before the ad was supposed to start running, King County Executive Dow Constantine ordered the Metro Transit system to reject the ad as well as any other new noncommercial advertising.
The acceptance of the ad had generated thousands of responses by phone, fax and e-mail, many from out of the county and state, according to reports.
Italy will announce plans to build its first Holocaust museum. It will be in Rome. Italy to build its first Holocaust museum
News DeskFebruary 21, 2011 23:21
Demjanjuk threatens hunger strike as trial nears end John Demjanjuk holds a sign 1627 -- the number of a Soviet investigative file on him the defense says has hundreds of pages of details -- as he is brought into the courtroom in Munich, southern Germany on Feb. 22, 2011. AP Today at 13:15 | ReutersJohn Demjanjuk, accused of helping to kill 27,900 Jews in the Holocaust, will go on a hunger strike unless the court allows him to present evidence that could exonerate him, his lawyer said on Feb. 22. Ulrich Busch, who is defending the 90-year-old in a Munich court against charges of assisting in killings at the Sobibor Nazi death camp in Poland, said Demjanjuk would begin the hunger strike within the next two weeks. Busch said there are documents in a KGB file from Russia and Ukraine that could prove Demjanjuk is innocent. He read a statement for Demjanjuk in which he accused Judge Ralph Alt of conducting a political "show trial". "This is a mockery of justice," Busch said on Demjanjuk's behalf. Prosecutors are expected to conclude their case on Tuesday and final arguments could also begin unless Demjanjuk's health deteriorates, a Munich court spokesman said. A verdict could be reached in March. The 15-month trial has been delayed periodically as Demjanjuk has refused at times to attend sessions on grounds of ill-health even though he was declared fit by doctors. German state prosecutors accuse Demjanjuk, who was top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted war criminals, of assisting in killings at Sobibor, where they say at least 250,000 Jews were killed. He denies having worked there. His family says he is too frail for trial, which he began in November 2009 in a wheelchair and attends lying down. Demjanjuk was born in Ukraine and fought in the Red Army before the Nazis captured him and recruited him as a camp guard during World War Two. He emigrated to the United States in 1951 and became a naturalised citizen in 1958.
--
