Saturday, March 9, 2013
Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story: On the road to Israeli apartheid?
"A Palestinian-only bus services brings Israel's 'equal but seperate" policies into question amid calls of racism. Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Ben White, a journalist and the author of "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide"; Gregg Roman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Pittsburgh. Gregg is former political advisor to the Knesset and a former official at ministry of defense; and Mustafa Barghouti from the Palestinian National Initiative and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council."
Guardian Video: Port Said death sentence ruling sparks fires in Cairo and sabotage on the Suez Canal
"Al-Ahly football fans torch the Egyptian football federation buildings and a police officer's club in Cairo on Saturday, while al-Masry fans block Suez Canal shipping in Port Said. Protests have broken out after a court confirmed death sentences for 21 football fans, found guilty of causing a riot in al-Masry's stadium in 2012 in which more than 70 people were killed."
Friday, March 8, 2013
Real News Video: US Tries to Control Outcome of Syrian War
Omar Dahi: US increases aid to select opposition groups to determine winner of civil war
Gaza Women Suffer on ‘Their’ Day
"- “In Gaza we don’t lead normal lives, we just cope, and adapt to our abnormal lives under siege and occupation,” says Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician and a long-time human rights and women’s rights activist in the Gaza Strip. On International Women’s Day, when many of the world’s women are fighting for workplace equality and an end to domestic violence, Farra and the majority of Gaza’s women fight for the most basic of rights.
“It is difficult to live in this small piece of land, where basic needs like clean water, regular electricity, proper sanitation and means of recreation are not met. Women in Gaza are particularly traumatised by the continuous Israeli military attacks,” says Farra.
A 2009 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) report highlights the suffering of Palestinian women under the illegal Israeli-led siege imposed on Gaza for the past seven years, and under the 23 days of Israeli attacks in 2008-2009 which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including 112 women........
In its report on the suffering of Gazan women, PCHR highlights that prospects will not improve until the siege on Gaza is lifted and normal economic activity allowed.
“The dire economic situation means that many women and their families are sliding deeper and deeper into abject poverty. They have suffered the horrors of an illegal war, and now are struggling just to survive.”"
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Al-Jazeera Video: Egypt army intervenes in Port Said protests
"The army has been sent in to help police restore order in the Egyptian city of Port Said.
There have been violent protests there since Sunday.
But as Anita McNaught reports, the soldiers may be making the problem worse, not better."
Hugo Chavez and Me
Challenging the Washington Consensus
By Tariq Ali
CounterPunch
"........What of the country he leaves behind? A paradise? Certainly not. How could it be, given the scale of the problems? But he leaves behind a very changed society in which the poor felt they had an important stake in the government. There is no other explanation for his popularity. Venezuela is divided between his partisans and detractors. He died undefeated, but the big tests lie ahead. The system he created, a social democracy based on mass mobilisations, needs to progress further. Will his successors be up to the task? In a sense, that is the ultimate test of the Bolívarian experiment.
Of one thing we can be sure. His enemies will not let him rest in peace. And his supporters? His supporters, the poor throughout the continent and elsewhere, will see him as a political leader who promised and delivered social rights against heavy odds; as someone who fought for them and won."
Egypt betrays revolution with proposed draconian laws
".........“The Egyptian authorities are yet again trying to push through draconian legislation to stifle independent civil society and silence critical voices. Those same critical voices were instrumental in documenting Mubarak-era abuses and bringing about the ‘25 January Revolution’,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“President Mohamed Morsi’s administration must break with Mubarak-era tactics of smearing human rights NGOs in state-controlled media as foreign ‘spies’ and scapegoating them for all of society’s ills.”
A separate draft law on public protests, also under discussion in the Upper House of parliament, would place severe restrictions on freedom of assembly on grounds that include “security or public order; hampering citizens’ interests; blocking roads or transport; delaying traffic… or serious threats to the above.”
It also establishes a number of bureaucratic hurdles to organizing a protest, gives governors the power to postpone a demonstration, or impose blanket prohibitions, and allows for the use of water cannon, tear gas and batons by security forces to disperse peaceful protests if an audible warning is not heeded.
“A law which arbitrarily restricts the right to peaceful protest in post-revolutionary Egypt and gives wide discretionary powers to police to use force against peaceful protesters would be a major setback and a betrayal of all those who stood up for human rights in the January uprising,” said Philip Luther."
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Hugo Chávez Dead: Transformed Venezuela & Survived U.S.-Backed Coup, Now Leaves Uncertainty Behind
Democracy Now!
"With the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after a two-year fight with cancer, we host a roundtable discussion on a revolutionary leader whose democratic-socialist policies not only transformed his country, but helped steer the entire Latin American region away from U.S.-backed neoliberalism. We’re joined by five guests: Miguel Tinker Salas, Pomona College professor and author of two books on Venezuela; Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger, a friend and adviser to Chávez; New York University professor and author Greg Grandin; Gregory Wilpert, founder of Venezuelanalysis.com; and Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs. We spend the hour on the life of Chávez, his legacy, and what may come next in Venezuela........"
"With the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after a two-year fight with cancer, we host a roundtable discussion on a revolutionary leader whose democratic-socialist policies not only transformed his country, but helped steer the entire Latin American region away from U.S.-backed neoliberalism. We’re joined by five guests: Miguel Tinker Salas, Pomona College professor and author of two books on Venezuela; Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger, a friend and adviser to Chávez; New York University professor and author Greg Grandin; Gregory Wilpert, founder of Venezuelanalysis.com; and Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs. We spend the hour on the life of Chávez, his legacy, and what may come next in Venezuela........"
El comandante has left the building
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
"Unfortunately for turbo-capitalists in Washington and Brussels, the death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez from cancer does not signal an end to the spirit of Chavism. With his "socialism of the 21st century" and defiance of centuries-old patterns of subjugation in Latin America, El Comandante struck a chord with the Global South that's now resonating in crumbling European structures......."
Asia Times
"Unfortunately for turbo-capitalists in Washington and Brussels, the death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez from cancer does not signal an end to the spirit of Chavism. With his "socialism of the 21st century" and defiance of centuries-old patterns of subjugation in Latin America, El Comandante struck a chord with the Global South that's now resonating in crumbling European structures......."
Israel mistreats Palestinian children in custody: UNICEF
"(Reuters) - Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military are subject to widespread, systematic ill-treatment that violates international law, a UNICEF report said on Wednesday.
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, most of them boys, are arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli military, police and security agents every year in the occupied West Bank.
According to the report, most of the youths are arrested for throwing stones....."
Rebels shoot down helicopter
"Clear video footage has emerged purporting to show Syrian rebels shooting down a helicopter with a shoulder launched missile.
Amin, an avid reader of this blog, translates the commentary as saying that
the incident took place near the Nayrab airbase near Aleppo.
He points out that the
weapon used appears to resemble Chinese
anti-aircraft missiles highlighted in hands of rebels elsewhere by weapons
blogger Eliot Higgins on his Brown Moses blog.
Higgins suspects the rebels have gained access to a new supply of
Chinese-made anti-aircraft Manpads." Refugee data
Refugee data
The Guardian's
data team has tracked the exponential growth in Syrian refugees. They also
crunch the numbers on the age and gender of the refugees, and which countries
are doing most to support them.
Putting the numbers in a British context helps explain the scale of the
exodus. Since January more 400,000 Syrians - roughly the same as the total
population of Edinburgh - have fled the violence.If all Syrian refugees fled to Britain they would rival Birmingham as Britain's second largest city.
This graphic shows where the refugees have actually gone.
Hamas's ban on women running Gaza marathon is a missed opportunity
The Gaza marathon
could have been a show of strength against Israeli expansion. Hamas squandered
that with its petty ban
"Anyone who takes part in a long-distance run knows there will be plenty of problems to overcome, but the Gaza marathon was always going to be in an endurance class of its own. When I registered for this year's race, my concerns were certainly less about my personal training schedule than about global conflict......
Hamas's decision to ban women – 119 from abroad and 266 from Gaza itself – is wrong for all the most basic reasons. It is sexist, discriminatory and regressive, but – crucially – it wastes what should have been yet another huge blow against Israel's illegal occupation and blockade of the Palestinian territories. What the ban ultimately shows is that the Palestinian Authority, Hamas's more liberal political opponent based in Ramallah, is increasingly losing influence. War and occupation inevitably lead to authoritarian government, and Hamas is asserting its traditional conservatism in a manner that is of great concern to thousands of Palestinians.
Hamas insists that it merely wants "local customs respected", but women keeping most of their bodies covered as they ran was apparently not enough. The movement has absolute power in Gaza, and objected to an entire community uniting with foreign supporters in a show of solidarity. The fact that money from the marathon would be spent on supporting summer camps for Palestinian children appeared of little concern to Hamas......."
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