The following statement was just released by the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Palestine at the conclusion of the delegation’s Middle East visit: The Parliamentary Friends of Palestine study tour arrived in Palestine on 17 April and has been here for eight days, visiting the West Bank, Gaza and Israel. It has been an informative and…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
New Zealand soldiers possibly complicit in torture in Afghanistan
How many US or Australians are potentially equally responsible for caring too little about gross breaches of human rights? Labour is adding its support to calls for an inquiry into claims Kiwi troops handed over Afghan prisoners to authorities who tortured them. Journalist Jon Stephenson claimed on TVNZ’s Marae programme that NZ’s Special Forces in…
Rules for aspiring politicians and journalists; Israel must be obeyed
If anything has been clear over the last months during the Marrickville BDS/Israel-Palestinian debate, it’s that every major, Australian mainstream politician and most journalists simply won’t allow any dissent on the Middle East. Insecurity, paranoia and bullying are the norm. The local Zionist community just wants to sing the Israeli national anthem. And now this…
What Wikileaks Gitmo files says about our Western “values”
My following article appears in today’s ABC The Drum: The Wikileaks-released Guantanamo Bay files provide an invaluable insight into the mindset of the US and its allies since September 11. An infrastructure of torture was implemented, a practice still defended by the US government today, to allegedly protect the homeland from future attack. The result…
Murdoch broadsheet gives lesson in how not to report news
Murdoch’s Australian has spent the last months demonising NSW Greens Senator elect Lee Rhiannon. The main reason is her strong and principled support for sanctions against apartheid Israel and her progressive politics. Today’s paper features a Labor party press release dressed up as a news story. Memo to reporters there; only quoting one political enemy…
ABCTV News24 on human rights in China, Gitmo torture and Sri Lankan war crimes
I appeared last night on ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside ABC journalist Marius Benson and lobbyist Sue Cato (video here). While China, we learn via Wikileaks, ignores Australia’s supposed concerns for human rights, I asked if Prime Minister Julia Gillard actually cared about human rights as there had been no public comments from her…
Where is media accountability for years repeating US lies over “terrorism”?
Many in the Western media and political elites have spent years since 9/11 smearing a litany of Muslim “terrorists” because the US leaked selective information to friendly journalists and leaders. Serious questions were dismissed. The Murdoch press globally loved to hype bogus US claims about the “worst of the worst” at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.…
Marrickville, BDS and Palestine in eyes of The Jerusalem Post
One week after Sydney’s Marrickville BDS vote, the issue continues to resonate globally. I was interviewed late last week by the pro-settler and conservative Jerusalem Post newspaper. The journalist was friendly enough but it was clear I speaking to a man who didn’t see the West Bank as occupied but merely Judea and Samaria (the…
Canberra wants to look tough on refugees while privatised care dehumanises all
It’s a sad sight seeing Immigration Minister Chris Bowen talking about punishing asylum seekers for his own government’s mistakes. Any chance he’d like to examine why so many refugees are suffering prolonged mental trauma under his care? Of course not. With an ongoing protest around Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, activists on the ground…
Australia set to undermine East Timor (once occupied and now “free”)
Is there truly anybody who still believes Wikileaks is not releasing essential information to better understand our world? The revelations just keep on coming and indicate a government in Canberra that is more than willing to play the post-colonial game. From simply fighting with the big boys in Afghanistan to creating trouble themselves closer to…