Sri Lanka has largely fallen off the media radar despite the human rights situation for Tamils in the country remaining dire. Britain’s Channel 4 led the way this year with some fine reporting on the massacres. Now this: Just three months after the Sri Lankan government declared the country liberated from the Tamil Tigers, video…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Gaza blockade is great for al-Qaeda
My latest New Matilda column is about the growing militancy in Gaza: The recent shootout in a Gaza mosque has highlighted the way Israel’s blockade of the strip radicalises people and encourages terrorism, writes Antony Loewenstein Gaza is facing yet another threat exacerbated by the ongoing Israeli siege: Islamic fundamentalism. In mid August, 24 people…
Don’t define Saudi through oppression alone
Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia are legendary and largely ignored by the Western elite. That oil is certainly tasty. But the Kingdom is changing, slowly but surely, through a very modern medium: “5 riyals” – less than two dollars – that’s all the money many unemployed Saudi youths have in their pockets. It’s also…
If Hamas murders innocents, we’ll say so
Some pro-Israeli Palestinians (yes, they exist) are accusing the Western media of ignoring human rights abuses committed by Hamas. Maybe some are but I seriously question the claim that Israeli violence is somehow more news-worthy. Hamas atrocities are regularly slammed in the Western media, as they should be. Take this (though the alleged source, Fatah,…
With mates like this, being enemies is maybe more honest
A relationship between “friends” in the Middle East is predictably contemptible. I remember speaking to countless Egyptians during my visit there in 2007 and hearing support for cutting off any relationship with Israel. This story is therefore unsurprising: To say that Farouk Hosni doesn’t much like Israel is putting it lightly. According to the Anti-Defamation…
Israel will soon pay a price for ignoring decency
Step by step, global public opinion is realising that direct action is the only way to isolate Israel and highlight its crimes: The British Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which represents 85% of firefighters and support staff in Britain, plans to move motions at the Trade Union Congress’s (TUC) annual congress in September for the British…
Iran’s brutality spreads like a cancer
There have been countless allegations of torture and abuse at the hands of the Iranian regime since the disputed election in June. Now testimonies of rape and torture are being spread online. Here’s one: They took us with tens of others to Kahrizak camp. At least in that room that I were held there were…
Iran’s own backyard would be a better place to start
Oh, the irony. This would be a wonderful idea, if the Islamic Republic didn’t have a few of its own gross human rights abuses to investigate: A majority of Iranian lawmakers have approved a bill that will fund a program intended to expose “breaches of human rights” in the US.
Brutality brought to you by Zionist military service
The following article, which appeared in Israel’s right-wing paper Maariv, was translated by Keren Rubinstein and distributed by the Middle East News Service. The author is the editor of the arts and culture supplement: With baton in hand: that’s us Shai Lahav The wide public debate about violence has ignored one of the most basic…
Jews who hate Arabs (and the state that backs it)
The reality of Jewish fascism in Israel isn’t a fringe mentality; it’s a growing minority of Jews who despise Arabs and believe Israel is given to us by God. Fat chance. I spent a great deal of time observing these people during my recent visit to Israel and the West Bank. It is a reality…