- Omar Hamed
Infobox Person
name = Omar Hamed
caption = Omar Hamed holds a Palestinian flag at an anti-globalisation protest in Melbourne, Australia in 2006
dead=dead
birth_date = 1988
birth_place =New Zealand
death_date =
death_place =Omar Hamed is an
anarchist political activist and student based inAotearoa New Zealand who was arrested in the October 15 anti-terror raids.Background
He was born in
Greece to New Zealand andPalestinian parents, and raised onAuckland 's North Shore.cite web | title = Alleged terrorist's name revealed | work = New Zealand Herald | url = http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10472072 | date =2007-10-25 ] cite web | title = Urewera 17 Profile: Omar Hamed - Student Activist | work = Scoop.co.nz | url = http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0710/S00390.htm | date =2007-10-25 ]Activism
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.While a student at
Takapuna Grammar School he was instrumental in setting up Radical Youth, an anti-capitalist organisation for young people.He has also been involved in the Palestinian rights group
Students for Justice in Palestine [cite web | title = Suspect is member of Palestinian rights group | work = New Zealand Herald | url = http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10472187 | date =2007-10-26 ] and helps run anactivist social center in Auckland calledA Space Inside .He is also a member of the
Auckland Anarchist Collective. 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
Hamed is also a published writer, having won an award for an article he wrote for the
College Herald , he has had several articles published on the news website Scoop he has also written for theProvoke Network [cite web | title = Taking back our rights | work = Aotearoa Youth Voices | url = http://www.myd.govt.nz/ayv/provoke/provoke2006/takingbackourrights.aspx] a youth advocacy group run by the Ministry of Youth Development, [cite web | title = Provoke Network | work = Aotearoa Youth Voices | url = http://www.myd.govt.nz/ayv/provoke/provoke.aspx] and Workers Party magazine "The Spark". [cite web | title = Youth pay revolt heats up | work = The Spark | url = http://thespark.org.nz/spark-archive/spark-archive-industrial-action/youth-pay-revolt-heats-up/ | date = April 2006]Hamed is an editor at
Indymedia Aotearoa .October 2007 terror raids
One of seventeen people arrested in police raids that occurred in October 2007, it is alleged he was in possession of firearms in the Ruatoki Valley. He is currently facing three charges of illegal possession of a firearm and one of unlawful possession of
Molotov cocktails .ee also
*October 15 anti-terror raids
*Indymedia Aotearoa
*Students for Justice in Palestine References
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