Room for debate in the Islamic Republic

Rasool Nafisi, who teaches the sociology of development and Middle Eastern studies at Strayer University, reminds us that some Iranian journalists were appalled at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent speech at Durban II: Some Iranian journalists and political activists questioned Ahmadinezhad’s speech. They felt Iran was humiliated by the event. A reporter asked Rahim-Moshaei, the president’s…

Sri Lanka is a nation we support. Why?

A speech was given recently in Qatar for World Press Freedom Day. Murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge was posthumously given the World Press Freedom Prize 2009. His niece, Natalie Samarasinghe, read out a statement from his widow, Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge: The free Sri Lanka in which I was born no longer exists. Our country…

The struggle away from the headlines

John Docker is an Australian Jew long associated with human rights. He’s also one of the founders of the Committee to Dismantle Zionism. He presented the following paper yesterday at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies conference, “After Israel’s attack on Gaza: How do we work for peace and justice?”. In…

Yes, Israel is not special

Phil Weiss, reporting this week from the AIPAC conference, notes a growing fear in the Zionist lobby that the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is starting to bite. Who thinks so? The head of AIPAC: …Rather than attempting to simply de-legitimatize it with charges of anti-Semitism, he recognized its true motivation: “This is more…

When Israel becomes Iran?

I look forward to all the Zionist culture warriors who condemn Muslim countries and their treatment of women to be equally upset with this move in Israel: New regulation bans female employees at Shas’ school network from coming to work with wigs or without scarves completely covering their hair. ‘Have we become Iran?’ one worker…

Who’s really scared of listening to new voices?

The play about Jewish identity and Palestinian rights, Seven Jewish Children, premiered overseas recently to great acclaim (and the usual complaints by the Zionist lobby). It’s coming to Melbourne in a few week’s time and how does the Jewish establishment react? From today’s Age: A play that has been condemned by Jewish groups and some…

True democratic nations don’t do this

This video shows peaceful, non-violent resistance to Israeli brutality in the West Bank. For his “crimes”, Ezra Nawi may well soon go to jail for this brave act. Israeli Neve Gordon worries: People might assume that Nawi’s impending imprisonment as well as other alarming developments (like the recent arrest of New Profile and Target 21…

Let them suffer

One more way that Palestinians are suffering under Israeli “democracy”: More than 700 Palestinian workers in Gaza who suffered on-the-job accidents inside Israel used to receive monthly disability payments from Israeli employers. But in January 2009, workers stopped receiving these payments as the Israeli courts decided that Israeli insurance companies are no longer liable towards…

A conversation that needs to be had

2009 Russia may be a human rights nightmare, but this is encouraging: On April 22nd Dmitry Anatol’yevich Medvedev became the first Russian president to launch a comment-enabled blog on Russia’s broadest, most contentious political blogging platform, Zhivoy Zhurnal (LiveJournal), or ZheZhe as it is informally known. He will be blogging by video, so he inaugurated…

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