Israeli occupation forces carried out a four-hour killing spree in the Jenin refugee camp in late January that left ten dead, including a 61-year-old woman, Majda Obaid, and two teenagers. Their killers arrived in a cheese truck. Before departing, they fired tear gas at a nearby hospital, leaving children choking and coughing.
On the evening of 11 December, 15-year-old Palestinian Jana Majdi Zakarneh went onto the roof of her home in the West Bank city of Jenin to find her cat. Soon after, the sound of gunfire echoed across Jenin’s streets, as Israeli occupation forces carried out yet another night-time raid. After the gunfire ceased, Jana’s father and younger brother went looking for Jana. When they reached the roof, they confronted a terrible sight. Jana lifeless body lay in a puddle of blood, riddled by bullets from sniper fire.
Thousands of West Australian nurses went on strike on 25 November, rallying at parliament and in regional cities across the state, including Broome, Karratha and Bunbury. The strike took place in defiance of an Industrial Relations Commission ban and amid hostile media coverage and outrageous attacks by state Labor politicians.
The Australian Nursing Federation will proceed with a ballot of its West Australian members in defiance of an order by the Industrial Relations Commission. If nurses reject the McGowan state Labor government’s below inflation pay offer, they will resume a campaign of industrial action, which was suspended last week.
At 9.30am on 3 October 1952, a mushroom cloud billowed up above the Monte Bello Islands, 130 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia. The next day, the West Australian reported: “At first deep pink, it quickly changed to mauve in the centre, with pink towards the outside and brilliantly white turbulent edges. Within two minutes the cloud, which was still like a giant cauliflower, was 10,000 feet [three kilometres] high”.
Western Australian public sector workers will rally at the state parliament on 17 August to demand that wages keep up with the cost of living. The rally, organised by the Public Sector Alliance of nine trade unions, follows several stop-work rallies held at WA hospitals over the last month, involving thousands of health workers.