Not wanting Arabs in your town? Not racism, just run-of-the-mill Zionism: In the winding stone alleys of this Galilee hill town, a centuries-old center of Jewish mysticism, a campaign is underway. It is being waged by the town rabbi, Shmuel Eliahu, who along with other area rabbis issued a religious ruling several months ago forbidding…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
What should reporters really be doing with human rights groups?
Many journalists often write too uncritically about NGOs and human rights groups, myself included. Philip Gourevitch argues in the New Yorker that this does a disservice to the organisations and the people they’re trying to help: What is to be done? I don’t pretend to have answers for the humanitarians. But surely at least we…
Afghan politician wants us gone
Here’s a rarity. An Afghan politician calling for the removal of foreign troops. Note the sneering dismissal of her calls for withdrawal by the “balanced” ABC journalist: MARK COLVIN: Not even the optimists claim the war in Afghanistan is going brilliantly. The NATO force of which Australia is a part is still there largely because…
Do we care where we send the most vulnerable?
Many Western states are very keen to prematurely return asylum seekers to their country of origin despite the inherent dangers. Afghanistan or Sri Lanka yet safe? Of course not, but at least it’s one less problem for the government. And now this: Two asylum seekers who were deported to Baghdad and claim they were tortured…
Asylum seekers have rights, in case we’ve forgotten
This is wonderful news for human rights, refugees and decency: The [Australian] High Court has ruled in favour of two asylum seekers in a move that could undermine the Federal Government’s offshore processing system. The two Sri Lankan Tamils had their refugee claims denied and wanted to challenge that decision in the courts. But they…
Nir Rosen; a journalist’s job is to investigate and challenge power
Nir Rosen talks on Democracy Now! about his new book, Aftermath: SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And what’s happening right now in Iraq? There’s been a long stalemate following the parliamentary elections in March. You were in Iraq many times since 2003, and you documented very closely, for example, Muqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army. Where does…
How to get the BBC close to the Shell bosom
Looking for an efficient campaign to discredit critics, embrace friendly media and turn black into white? Israel, Sri Lanka and others, take note, truth could be on your side: Secret internal company documents from the oil giant Shell show that in the immediate aftermath of the execution of the Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa…
More evidence of Colombo’s atrocities
Al-Jazeera airs new photographs of Sri Lankan government massacres of Tamils in the final stages of last year’s war. Just another global citizen dealing humanely with terrorism:
Hope, Votes and Bullets; documenting Iranian resistance
A wonderful new book has recently been released, Hope, Votes and Bullets (here’s an internet preview of the striking pages). It documents, through wonderful imagery, graphics and text, the millions of Iranians who took to the streets in 2009 during a period of intense political upheaval. The internet was integral to spreading the word. There…
How Palestine inspires the people of Kashmir
Arundhati Roy in the New York Times powerfully expresses the conflict in Kashmir, America’s willful impotence and the mood of resistance: A week before he was elected in 2008, President Obama said that solving the dispute over Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination — which has led to three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 —…