Alan Shemper's Blog

Doctors Describe the Horror of Israel’s Pager Attack in Lebanon

Surgeons and others detail gruesome injuries; many of the thousands of victims were blinded, with fingers severed

New Lines Magazine

Of the 160 patients who came into the emergency room, 140 suffered serious eye injuries. For almost two hours, AUBMC’s head of ophthalmology, Bahaa Noureddine, conducted triage among the waiting patients to see “which were the eyes that can be salvaged,” deciding which could wait and which were beyond hope. At 7 p.m., the first case was wheeled into the operating room. Noureddine and his staff of nine surgeons did not stop operating until midnight three days later.

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Despite the team’s best efforts, most of those who came in were left partially blind. At least 10 lost their sight entirely. Across the country, local media reports that more than 300 were left blinded.

Chomsky goes through some of the crimes of the post-war presidents.

I'm an American Activist. Israeli Forces Shot Me

The Sept. 6 killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi haunts me because a bullet tore through my leg at the same weekly demonstration a month earlier.

TIME|Daniel Santiago

On Friday, Aug. 9, I was shot by an Israeli soldier during a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank village of Beita.

The weekly demonstrations there began in May 2021 in response to the establishment of a newly-formed settlement called Evyatar, which the Israeli government has since legalized, as they accelerate the annexation of Palestinian land. The Israeli army fired tear gas and live rounds, forcing a few dozen of us protesters to flee and seek shelter in a nearby olive grove.

At first, I didn’t realize I had been shot. I thought I had been hit by a tear gas canister and was even able to keep running for a few moments. It was when I looked down and saw the raw mass of pulsing flesh that I understood a bullet had torn through my leg.

Innocence Project Statement on the Execution of Marcellus Williams

A Black man convicted of killing a white woman, Mr. Williams maintained his innocence until the very end.

Innocence Project

Tonight, Missouri executed an innocent man.

Our hearts are with the family and friends of Marcellus Williams and Felicia Gayle, who have suffered unimaginable loss and trauma.

Mr. Williams’ story echoes that of too many others caught in our country’s broken criminal legal system. A Black man convicted of killing a white woman, Mr. Williams maintained his innocence until the very end. His conviction was based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who were paid for their testimony. No DNA evidence linked him to the crime. And the current St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney acknowledged that errors made by the trial prosecutors – including mishandling the murder weapon and intentionally excluding Black prospective jurors in violation of the Constitution – contributed to a wrongful conviction.