Human Rights Watch on the UN Gaza report: The failure of the United States and European Union governments to endorse the report of the Gaza fact-finding mission sends a message that serious laws-of-war violations will be treated with kid gloves when committed by an ally, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 29, 2009 Justice…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
The power of a moderate, Zionist Jew like Richard Goldstone
Israel is bitching to the world that the UN Goldstone Gaza report should be dismissed, ignored, scrubbed from history. And yet cracks are starting to appear, writes Gideon Levy in Haaretz: Israel should thank Judge Richard Goldstone and his commission’s important report. After subjecting him to useless, automatic mudslinging, Israel suddenly realized that it should…
How the occupation sucks water from the void
Ta’ayush are a wonderful Israeli human rights group that spend most weekends in the West Bank protecting Palestinians from crazy settlers and complicit soldiers (see here). Last weekend this happened: In one of the most remarkable activities in recent time, Palestinians and Israeli activists succeeded this Saturday (alas, only for few hours) in breaking the…
Letting refugees die in the name of punishing Hamas
I heard constantly during my recent visit to Gaza that the Egyptians were as complicit in the blockade as the Israelis. This news is therefore shocking but unsurprising: Rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on the Egyptian authorities to “urgently rein in their border security forces” after seven African asylum-seekers were killed in…
Hearing the Burmese cries for freedom
Brutality in Burma has been occurring for decades. A friend recently spent time in the country and has published this powerful story in the New York Times about the fledging democracy movement there: U Win Tin, Myanmar’s longest-serving political prisoner, was tormented, tortured and beaten by his captors in the notorious Insein Prison for nearly…
Only bad Jews don’t know how to stay quiet
Jews, your job is to shut up and support Israel. Not clear? Allow Isi Leibler (this Australian born Jew has a pedigree), writing in the Jerusalem Post, explain: We must pay more attention to the threat from within. Today, self-loathing Jews (including Israelis) are at the forefront of almost every campaign to denigrate and defame…
Sri Lanka attempts to talk about joy instead of death
I reported in February the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka and its apparent attempt to white-wash or ignore completely the brutal civil war then taking place in the country. Now, as the government continues to imprison hundreds of thousands of Tamils, those wily cultural ambassadors are back at it: Sri Lanka will host the…
The right to fight injustice in Palestine
Jewish Israeli academic Neve Gordon – who recently called for an academic boycott of Israel due to “apartheid” in the Palestinian territories – writes: A simple Google search with the words “Palestinian violence” yields over 86,000 pages, while a search with the words “Palestinian civil disobedience” generates only 47 pages.
Is Israel trying to provoke more trouble?
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights release a statement: The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli government’s decision to allow Jewish settler groups to enter the yards of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. … PCHR further condemns the use of excessive force by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against Palestinian civilians…
The few Jewish Israelis who put human rights into action
During my recent visit to Israel and the West Bank I spent time with the wonderful Israeli group Ta’ayush as they protected Palestinian farmers from violent Jewish settlers and complicit IDF soldiers. Here’s a story, via Ta’ayush member Joseph Dana: September 22, 2009. Jerusalem District Court. Amiel and Eli It’s become a little too familiar,…