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Omar Hamed
| Omar Hamed | |
 Omar Hamed holds a Palestinian flag at an anti-globalisation protest in Melbourne, Australia in 2006 | |
| Birth: | 1988, Greece |
|---|---|
| Died: | -, - |
Omar Hamed, born 1988 in Greece, is an anarchist political activist based in Aotearoa New Zealand who was arrested in the New Zealand raids of October 15 2007 on October 15. Police found 4 firearms; Hamed is one of 16 people being charged with possession of firearms...
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Background[edit]
He was born to New Zealand and Palestinian parents, and raised on Auckland's North Shore.[1][2][3]
Activism[edit]
He has told media that he gained his inspiration to become an activist from seeing his mother struggling to stop National and New Zealand First attacks on social welfare in the 1990s.[2]
While a student at Wikipedia:Takapuna Grammar School he was instrumental in setting up Radical Youth, an anti-capitalist organisation for young people.[1]
He has also been involved in the Palestinian rights group Wikipedia:Students for Justice in Palestine[4] and helps run an activist social center in Auckland called A Space Inside.
He was also a member of the Auckland Anarchist Collective[2]
In 2007, he was involved in a protest in support of Iranian hunger striker Ali Panah at Mt Eden Prison. He, along with six other people, was arrested. He was given diversion and community service. The day following the protest, Ali Panah was freed from the remand prison.
Writings[edit]
Hamed is also a published writer, having won an award for an article he wrote for the College Herald,[1] he has had several articles published on the news website Scoop[2] he has also written for the Wikipedia:Provoke Network[5] a youth advocacy group run by the Ministry of Youth Development,[6] and Workers Party magazine The Spark.[7]
Hamed is an editor at Wikipedia:Indymedia Aotearoa.
October 15 2007 raids on Tuhoh organisation[edit]
One of seventeen people arrested in police raids that occurred in the Ruatoki Valley, it was alleged he was twice in possession of firearm in Tauranga between January 10 and January 14 2007, then was in possession of a semi-automatic rifle, in Auckland, between September 13 and September 16. He is currently facing three charges of illegal possession of a firearm and one of unlawful possession of Molotov cocktails. Police found 4 firearms in total; Hamed is one of 16 people who were at one point charged with possession of firearms. As of the 17th of November, 2007, the firearms charges were only against 2 of the 17 people,[8] and the 17th person was charged with possession of cannabis, which charges have been dropped.
Press reports of the event were often wildly inaccurate, seemingly manufactured out of thin air and not even resembling the police record of events:
- "The Star-Times, which broke the story on Fairfax Media's Stuff website last Monday, understands the police have seized more than 20 guns, including AK-47s and other military-style semi-automatic rifles, as well as stab and bullet-resistant clothing, camouflage netting, bomb-making recipes and an IRA manual."[9]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Alleged terrorist's name revealed. New Zealand Herald.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Urewera 17 Profile: Omar Hamed - Student Activist. Scoop.co.nz.
- ↑ "A Citizen’s Guide To An Emerging Empire". Scoop. 9 November 2006. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00170.htm.
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- ↑ Suspect is member of Palestinian rights group. New Zealand Herald.
- ↑ Taking back our rights. Aotearoa Youth Voices.
- ↑ Provoke Network. Aotearoa Youth Voices.
- ↑ Youth pay revolt heats up. The Spark.
- ↑ Terror raids - charges linked to just 4 guns. The New Zealand Herald.
- ↑ Bush, Clark and Key were possible 'targets'. The Sunday Star Times. (cached 21 October 2007)
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External Links[edit]
- Avatar’s secret history lesson on our doorstep Omar Hamed, Socialist Aotearoa, Monday, February 08, 2010
