Another moment in Australia’s dysfunctional refugee system
A refugee activist from Western Australia writes to me: An Iraqi asylum seeker I visit at a detention centre just got a rejection letter from DIAC [Department of Immigration and Citizenship]. His brother is an Aussie citizen whom I have met while he has been visiting the Iraqi. After waiting 14 months, the government says…
If only Sri Lanka was more like Libya
Very powerful and true letter published in yesterday’s Melbourne Age: I am a Sri Lankan. In 2009, we had the same issue as Libya: Sri Lankan armed forces killed civilians during the fight against the rebels. The Australian Tamils wrote to then prime minister Kevin Rudd to help stop the bloodshed and prevent the innocents…
We were for Gaddafi just before we were against him
Thank you, Wikileaks: Following a meeting in Tripoli between Libyan leader Colonel Qaddafi, his son Muatassim and a United States Congressional delegation led by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman on 14 August 2009, the American embassy classified diplomatic cable to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton highlighted the close working relationship both nations enjoy to…
South Africa knows about apartheid and sees it in Israel
Wonderful news (via Joseph Dana): In a major victory for… proponents… of the academic boycott of Israel, the University of… Johannesburg has voted to end its relationship with Ben Gurion University. This… decision… to boycott Ben Gurion University carries… special… significance… given South Africa’s history of Apartheid and the… successful… boycott that was… launched… against the country in the 1980’s. The university’s decision is another confirmation of…
Internet freedom globally isn’t coming and never was
Brilliant (the animation, that is, and I partially agree with the message, too, something I’m contemplating as I’m currently updating my second book, The Blogging Revolution, for an Australian and international publisher. Just how influential is the internet during the current Arab revolutions?):
Inside the minds of Itamar colonists
Inka Stafrace is an Australian film-maker concerned with Israel/Palestine. Her first film, Hope in the Sling Shot, was accepted then refused screening on “our” ABC. Brave souls at the national broadcaster. She’s currently working on a new project but in the meantime has shot this beautiful short piece on the recent settler murder in Itamar…
Australia’s Zionist lobby worried BDS may be catching
The ongoing controversy over Sydney’s Marrickville council backing BDS against Israel is getting the political and media establishment and Zionist lobby worried. So what to do? Find a compliant Federal politician who loves Israel to death and will do anything to defend Zionist occupation. Victorian Liberal Mitch Fifield is your man. He’s been on trips…
Israel is “an island of stability”
Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak tells a Jewish audience in the US that Zionism is peachy, occupation is lovely (oh, apart from this and this, of course, but he must have mentioned this when the recorders were off) and the Jewish state should be given even more Western backing. Who believes this nonsense (apart from…