Showing all posts tagged human rights
Cultural BDS against Israel exploding everywhere
Yes: Film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, theatre director Michael Attenborough and actress Dame Harriet Walter are among the 117 signatories to a letter of protest over the “harsh” punishment. They claim that artists should be allowed to express themselves freely “without fear of financial or professional retribution”. The four musicians – Tom Eisner,…
Thank you developing world for allowing us to exploit you so quietly
If this doesn’t fit the definition of disaster capitalism, the term has no meaning (via the Guardian): The scale of the rush by speculators, pension funds and global agri-businesses to acquire large areas of developing countries is far greater than previously thought, and is already leading to conflict, hunger and human rights abuses, says Oxfam.…
Outsourcing death in war is the new American way
The “war on terror” has seen an explosion of private contractors making a killing from catching and killing all Arabs, I mean, terrorists, around the globe. Accountability is close to non-existent so we have no real idea which companies are involved, how many people are hired or what they’re actually doing. Remember, we’re told we…
Jewish neo-con joins Palestinian neo-con to expose those pesky Arabs
Yesterday I received the following email from Daniel Pipes: Please join me on a visit to Israel on March 7-15, 2012. Heritage Study Programs, a leading tour company, has asked me to lead a one -time only informative, enjoyable, and inexpensive week. Our focus will be on my special interest – the nearly 20 percent…
Roll up to find your deadly weapon of choice
The arms industry is a massive global market of Western nations, willing dictatorships and heaps of money. New Statesman reports on the world’s largest arms fair recently held in London: The two main exhibition halls have previously hosted concerts by Roxy Music, Alice Cooper and UB40. But today they are crammed with around 1300 exhibits,…
Duty to hold Sri Lanka to account for war crimes but Australia embraces the thugs
In some countries, such as Britain, there is continued public pressure on Colombo to hold those accused of war crimes to account. And rightly so. The Australian government has a rather different view: Several of the Tamil asylum seekers caught trying to flee Sri Lanka for Australia this week are being held in detention camps…
Australian liberal Zionists in turmoil over BDS and morality
The issue of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) continues to dominate the media agenda (with the Israeli occupation largely ignored). Today’s Melbourne Sunday Age has a feature on the issue and once again shows the Zionist establishment echoing anti-Semitic illusions: John Searle, president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, takes issue with the language…
Palestine burns, Israel occupies and Zionists look to the sky over UN vote
This week (probably) sees the Palestinian Authority (PA) go to the UN and ask for something resembling statehood. It’s all so vague and so deeply troubling that too many in the Western world have blindly supported it (such as today’s UK Observer). Others, such as Gideon Levy in Haaretz, can’t understand why Barack Obama isn’t…
We cannot forget ongoing trauma in Bahrain
While Washington and much of the West turns away, citizens must continue raising their voices. Anthony Shadid writes in the New York Times: Activists trade stories of colleagues forced to eat feces in prison and high-ranking Shiite bureaucrats compelled to crawl in their offices like infants. Human rights groups say 43 Shiite mosques and religious…