Israeli military forces shut down Friday anti-wall protests in villages across the West Bank on May 27, saying the unarmed weekly demonstrations in Palestinian villages have been declared illegal. An army spokesman said the areas between Israel's separation wall and villages Ni'lin and Bil'in, near Ramallah, have been designated "closed military zones" every Friday between 8 AM and 8 PM. In Nil'in, where the wall cuts off around one third of the village, protesters on last Friday marked the third anniversary of their peaceful protest campaign against the barrier—over the course of which Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians and injured hundreds more. This Friday, for the first time the army installed a checkpoint at the entrance to Ni'lin, stopping residents from joining the protest. Troops fired tear-gas grenades into fields when protesters tried to evade the checkpoint, and residents said over 100 olive trees were set on fire.

Protesters took to the streets of Egyptian cities on May 27 for nationwide Friday protests, again filling Cairo's Tahrir Square with tens of thousands. Demonstrations were also held in Alexandria, the canal cities of Ismailiya and Suez, and in the Sinai peninsula. Hundreds protested outside the hospital where ousted president Hosni Mubarak is being held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, demanding his transfer to prison. Protesters called on the military to hand over power to a civilian council, draw up a new constitution, and postpone September’s parliamentary election until new political parties can organize. The mass action, dubbed the “second day of rage,” was the largest since the rallies that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11.

Reporter Colin Moynihan writes for the New York Times' City Room blog, May 26:

At On-Air Haven for Dissent, a Dissenting Voice Is Silenced
For nearly 20 years, an East Village journalist named Bill Weinberg has been a familiar late-night voice on the left-leaning radio station WBAI-FM (99.5), ruminating about radical politics, global turmoil and life in New York City.

Following a campaign by the Stop the JNF Campaign, British Prime Minister David Cameron's name has apparently been dropped from the list of honorary patrons of the Jewish National Fund-UK. Twelve days ago, Stop the JNF Campaign wrote to Cameron, reiterating a previous request for him to withdraw as patron of the charity. The campaign's Mortaza Sahibzada said: "His name has been taken off the list and that is significant. Someone has decided to take it off and I doubt whether it was JNF."

Authorities in Serbia on May 26 announced the capture of Ratko Mladic, ending a 16-year manhunt for the former military commander of the self-declared Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mladic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is most infamous for ordering the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war in 1995. Extradition proceedings to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague are to begin immediately.

World War 4 Report today unveils a preview of our new website, New Jewish Resistance: Fighting Zionism and Anti-Semitism, Defending Pan-Semitic Unity. New Jewish Resistance aspires to be a movement, not just a website—uniting all Jews who believe in fighting Jew-hatred in the diaspora, not rallying around an illegitimate settler state. We will have the .org online soon (at the moment only the .com is up), but think of it as an organization in embryo. We will have more bloggers writing for us in the coming days. And we will post the following mission statement:

Five days of protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi culminated in harsh repression May 26 as riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse several hundred demonstrators demanding resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili. At least two are reported dead following a confrontation outside the parliament building. A government statement accused protesters of "planning to violently resist the police" and intending to illegally occupy the main street outside parliament to prevent the annual Independence Day parade. Protest leader Nino Burjanadze, who has promised a "revolution," pledged further demonstrations: "We will not stop. We will do everything to get rid of this government which hates its people." (AFP, Reuters, May 26)

Rae Abileah, the woman of Israeli descent who interrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's speech before the US Congress on May 24, claims she was beaten by AIPAC activists. "I yelled 'Stop the occupation' and immediately they jumped on me," she told Ynet May 25. "They assaulted me and I fell on the floor. The activists strangled me and beat me. Then I was dragged out by police who arrested me." She says she sustained injuries to the neck and shoulders which required hospitalization.