Completely non-existent: “No leniency [1].” That was the warning from Bahrain’s crown prince last week as government forces continued cracking down on protesters, activists, journalists and doctors. It was issued alongside yet another promise of reform by the Bahraini government. The warning was also met with silence from the United States. The U.S., which has…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Assange challenges Aussie journalist that Wikileaks has had no impact
Last night on ABC TV’s 7.30: LEIGH SALES: Commentators have noted that in terms of what the cables revealed about American diplomacy, it didn’t show anything particularly scandalous, if anything it showed that there was quite a bit of consistency between America’s public positions and their private positions, although in private of course they are…
Thinking very carefully before visiting Sri Lanka
Travelling isn’t an ethics-free zone. The places we visit are imbued with political and social meaning. Tourism in repressive states should be carefully navigated to avoid giving support to the regime (as much as possible). Sri Lanka, still in the grip of a political culture that refuses to acknowledge its massacre of Tamils and ongoing…
This is what Australia is doing to refugees in its care
The reality of life in Australia for asylum seekers is too rarely heard. So when Perth-based refugee activist Victoria Martin-Iverson wrote to me yesterday with the story below I asked if I could publish it here exclusively. This is the reality of privatised refugees, mostly ignored in a country that doesn’t seem too interested in…
BDS hits leading Canadian university (because Palestine isn’t forgotten)
As Israel continues to bomb Gaza and build more illegal settlements in the West Bank, global citizens are rising up. Inspiring stuff: On 29 March 2011, students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, shut down the scheduled Board of Governors (BoG) meeting after the body refused to consider a motion calling for divestment of pension…
Sydney’s 2SER Radio on Israel/Palestine, BDS and global justice
I was interviewed for Sydney’s 2SER Radio late last week on the current public “debate” over the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in Australia. Since the Murdoch press refuses to publish any substantial perspectives that challenge its blind Zionist position – a sign of true insecurity – it’s vital that indy media fills the gap:
Settler leaders think about Palestinians but continue to build illegal colonies
How touching that some settler heads actually spend a few minutes considering the rights of Palestinians before continuing to oppress them. Farcical: Danny Dayan, the chairman of the Yesha Council of West Bank settlements, told U.S. officials that some settlers would be willing to move to Israel proper in exchange for financial compensation, according to…
Memo to Jews; your job in life isn’t to back Israeli apartheid 24/7
Another day and yet another column by a Zionist in Israel’s largest daily who simply can’t tolerate any Jewish dissent on Israel/Palestine. Here we are in 2011 and still so much of mainstream Zionism attempts to enforce an unquestioning version of the ideology: Every day, more celebrated Jewish personalities – writers, artists, academics – are…
On Goldstone’s tragic and shameless silence over real Gaza crimes
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document.” Thus opens Judge Richard Goldstone’s much-discussed op-ed in The Washington Post. I have a strong feeling that the editor might have tampered with the text and that the original sentence ought to have…
Bradley Manning is suffering so stand up for him
At least a few are but where are the major political and media elites? Silence: British diplomats will express with officials in Washington for a second time MPs’ concerns about the treatment of a US soldier charged with leaking thousands of sensitive cables to WikiLeaks, the government has confirmed. Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham said…