Category Archives: human rights

58% of Israelis want Palestinians out of Jerusalem

Israel wants to create ghettos for Palestinians and strip them of any citizenship – but will not call them concentration camps?

PNN/ Jerusalem/A recent poll released on Tuesday by the Israeli Midgam Institute showed that 58% of Israeli’s back canceling the resident status and its accompanying rights for Arab residents of east Jerusalem.According to Israeli media, the poll comes after the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested stripping residency from Jerusalem Arabs this week and announced he may take a tour of the area to consider the move.Withdrawing the Israeli card from the Palestinians means that they will not be able to move or

Source: 58% of Israelis want Palestinians out of Jerusalem

IOF assault, kidnap two sisters, claim they had knives: Hebron | PNN

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Tuesday noon have brutally assaulted and kidnapped two Palestinian girls from Hebron, claiming that they had knives.The Imam of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Munther Abu Al-Feelat said that the sisters who were identified as Nour and Jihan Erekat, were passing in front of the mosque when Israeli soldiers stopped them to search them, but they refused.The Imam continued by saying that then, the mosque guards interfered to stop the soldiers from potentially shooting the girls.The two guards, Salah Al-Ja’bari (52) and Jehad Al-Ja’bari (30) were both arrested for “defending the girls.”

Source: IOF assault, kidnap two sisters, claim they had knives: Hebron | PNN

One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Numair’s best friend and co-worker clocked in early so she could head out to the protest, where she planted herself between two families with children. “In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore,” Numair said. “One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, ‘Do you know about yeast infections?’ ”Onlookers gave Numair the thumbs-up, and some passing cars honked in support, but she was the only counter-protester on the scene. Still, with a spontaneous chant, she managed to break up the protest in under a half-hour. “I don’t know why I started chanting ‘Yeast infections!’ but it just came out. I have this cold, so it was just this obnoxious squeak, cheerleader-like. And I started doing high kicks, which I don’t normally do, in my skinny jeans.” A religious leader was guiding a circle of protestors in prayers for Numair—but as her chants got louder and more grating, they stopped.I’m on board with pretty much anything — including being straight-up obnoxious — that makes it as hard as possible for anti-choicers to gather in front of clincs. A recent British study found that patients found the presence of anti-choice protestors outside clinics distressing, regardless of the protestors’ behavior; a silent prayer vigil by so-called “sidewalk counselors” was just as much of an unwanted intrusion as a more aggressive protest with graphic signs.Unfortunately, our legal system apparently thinks anti-choicers’ right to free speech takes precedence over patients’ right to access a legal medical procedure without harassment and intimidation. As long as that’s the case, the only (imperfect) solution is countering their speech with our speech — and if it’s shouting about yeast infections that makes anti-choicers as uncomfortable as they make those seeking abortions, so be it.

Source: One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

A demand for records—especially an extensive demand such as the one apparently occurring in Texas—is just as much about serving as a warning to future providers and patients as it is about casting as wide a net as possible in the hopes of finding some sort of error or deviance to potentially prosecute. For doctors, it’s a warning that the act of performing an abortion will inevitably put you under a microscope, where a mistake made in another medical profession that would likely be overlooked could in this case turn into a fine, a loss of a medical license, or worse. For patients, it’s an active reminder that someone, somewhere could find out about your medical past, and that there is always the chance that information could get out.  That’s an especially alarming scenario for the women of Texas, who are already learning the hard way that politics will often trump their health and safety, as the state cuts off family-planning services, refuses to expand Medicaid for low income residents, and will even arrest an undocumented mother while she is visiting her gynecologist.Subpoenaing medical records is just the latest salvo of the state of Texas’s vendetta against Planned Parenthood, and regardless of what the health department finds, the state will most likely be successful in frightening some patients and medical professionals away from the clinics. But like every other political attack in the state, it will do nothing to stop the need for reproductive health services, and instead it will just continue to put those services further out of reach for those who need it.

Source: Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

Northrop Grumman wins $60-billion Air Force contract to build new stealth bomber – LA Times

{This tells the tale – Northrop which began is California, now based near the Pentagon in DC to be closer to the feedline for dollars. Are the new bombers needed? Or is this just a jobs and budget game for lobbiests and folks planning to cash in when they “retire” and take cushy jobs for companies like Northrop?}

Northrop, based in Falls Church, Va., built the iconic bat-winged B-2 stealth bomber two decades ago. But the company was seen as the underdog in the battle against a team considered better funded and more politically connected.

Source: Northrop Grumman wins $60-billion Air Force contract to build new stealth bomber – LA Times

When girls become wives to escape war | Europe | DW.COM | 26.10.2015

When will men grow to be human and humane!

Marriage as protection from sexual violence

One of the recurring topics is family honor. Many girls and women are expected to defend their honor: this is perceived to include entering into marriage as a virgin. But sexual assault and rape often occur in Syria’s war zones. Claudia Söder from Medica Mondiale says that everyone there has had such experiences. Rape brings great shame to families, she says, as the honor of their daughter has been sullied. Marriage can solve the problem. “They hope that they will no longer be subjected to sexual violence,” explains Söder, adding that families accept the fact that the girls are legally much too young. Age often does not matter. “People are not bothered and the state does not take action,” says Christa Stolle. In dire situations, money plays a part, as families need the monetary dowry they receive for every eligible daughter. So the number of child brides has tripled in Syrian refugee camps in recent years.The subject is unsettling and it seems remote from people’s lives here, but there have been similar cases in Germany. Christa Stolle tells the story of a 16-year-old whose parents of Turkish origin wanted to marry her off. It is legally possible in Germany if special judicial authorization is granted but the parents had only planned a religious wedding, without the necessary documents. After the parents had taken the girl out of school and locked her up at home, the girl turned to the women’s rights organization. That was five years ago. The girl is now 21 years old and lives in an unnamed place with a different name and has a job, according to Stolle: “She is now a confident young woman and very grateful to us.”

Source: When girls become wives to escape war | Europe | DW.COM | 26.10.2015

US cutting Palestinian aid, says official | PNN (Major Fail by US!)

A US State Department official, travelling with Secretary of State John Kerry on a trip to Amman, confirmed there would be a cut.“The decision to reduce assistance to the Palestinian Authority was made this past spring,” he told reporters.“There were several factors contributing to this decision, including unhelpful actions taken by the Palestinians and constraints on our global assistance budget.”

Source: US cutting Palestinian aid, says official | PNN

After the fire, a familiar Irish story: we treat our Travellers as outcasts | Joe Joyce | Comment is free | The Guardian

We Irish like to see ourselves as a touch more moral than other nationalities, an odd legacy of the popular policy of neutrality during the second world war married to an older belief that we are more spiritual and empathetic than the crass materialists to our west and east.We tut-tut about American police shootings of poor African-Americans, Israel’s heavy-handed treatment of Palestinians, Hungary’s inhumane attitude towards Serbian refugees, and get misty-eyed about three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body lying on a Turkish holiday beach.But Tom Connors is not an African-American, a Palestinian, or a Syrian refugee; he’s not someone else’s problem. And we don’t really give enough of a tut about him to face down the visceral hatreds in our midst and treat our own outcasts with decency.

Source: After the fire, a familiar Irish story: we treat our Travellers as outcasts | Joe Joyce | Comment is free | The Guardian

Baby rescued from sea by Turkish fishermen after refugee boat capsizes | World news | The Guardian

Muhammad is now in good health and has since been released from a hospital in the provincial capital Izmir after initial treatment in Kusadasi.The rescuers said they helped 15 other people out of the water, adding that most of those floating the water were women crying for help, including one woman who was pregnant. They said that the group had been in the water for about five hours before they were found by the fishermen who then alerted the coastguard.Muhammed was since successfully reunited with his mother, 23-year-old Lorin Halef, who said that the smugglers had promised them a bigger boat than the one they had been forced to take in the end.“They put 30 people on the boat. They had told us that we would be going on a bigger boat. But when we got there, we saw that the boat was small,” Halef told Turkish reporters. “But by then it was too late to do anything. We wanted to go to Greece. We lived through a huge panic. But [the fishermen] saved us, I cannot thank them enough.”She also said that her husband Ihsan was still in Syria.

Source: Baby rescued from sea by Turkish fishermen after refugee boat capsizes | World news | The Guardian