Category Archives: human rights

IRIN Asia | Record harvest loss, food shortages hit dry Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka | Aid Policy | Disaster Risk Reduction | Environment | Food Security | Governance

Sri Lanka’s government is scrambling to ease the impact of record harvest losses on millions of farmers as the country enters its tenth month of an acute dry spell.

“It’s severe. In some areas in the North, North Central and Eastern Provinces, the water levels in the irrigation reservoirs will be sufficient only for drinking purposes and that, too, will be barely enough. No harvesting will be possible [until the next rains],” Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the country’s top-ranked public official, told IRIN.

via IRIN Asia | Record harvest loss, food shortages hit dry Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka | Aid Policy | Disaster Risk Reduction | Environment | Food Security | Governance.

Israeli forces deliver ‘deportation order’ {just because they can} to PFLP lawmaker | Maan News Agency

Khalida Jarrar told Ma’an that dozens of soldiers raided her house in Ramallah early Wednesday and delivered a deportation order “by an Israeli court” to Jericho for an unspecified period of time.

Jarrar added that the place of residence in Jericho was specified in the order.

She said the order was in Hebrew and that she refused to sign it when soldiers told her to, and that she was also provided a map for her movement inside Jericho.

Jarrar added that the raid was a form of house arrest and that she was given 24 hours to move out of Ramallah to Jericho.

She said she will take the paper to relevant parties to determine the response.

via Israeli forces deliver ‘deportation order’ to PFLP lawmaker | Maan News Agency.

And of course – anyone who happens to be in the home – oops – Israeli minister says Hamas leader Deif ‘deserves to die’ | Maan News Agency

Among the dead were Deif’s second wife, Widad, 27, and his seven-month-old son Ali. Rescue workers on Wednesday pulled the bodies of a 48-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy from the rubble, Qudra said.

Witnesses said at least three rockets were fired at the building, home to the al-Dalou family, pulverizing it into a pile of dust, debris and twisted metal and leaving a huge crater in the ground where the building once stood.

via Israeli minister says Hamas leader Deif ‘deserves to die’ | Maan News Agency.

Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: TWINS: Arpaio and Ferguson’s Chief Thomas Jackson — Why Latinos Should PAY ATTENTION to what’s Happening in Ferguson Missouri

I’ve been reading the posts by these Far Right Wing sites. They are disgusting and racists, blaming Teenager Brown for his own murder. However those attacking young Mike are the same nutcases that support Arpayaso, the Tea Party, Ted Cruz and all the other crazy racists that HATE LATINOS, Blacks, Gays, Women and all minorities. They are using THE SAME LANGUAGE they use when they attack us.

They are blaming poor Mike Brown, the dead victim who cannot speak for himself.

They are blaming the civil protesters who are utilizing their 1st amendment rights to rally. Yet these right wing racist websites call them “animals” and “let them kill themselves.” You should read their despicable spew. (However, you don’t have to read their vile spew. I’ll report it so you don’t have to read their garbage!)

These are the same WORDS they use against LATINOS in Maricopa County / in Guadalupe!

These folks don’t believe in EQUALITY!

Their EQUALITY only encompasses WHITE MEN, not ALL PEOPLE – not ALL MINORITIES!

WE LATINOS NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT’s Happening in Ferguson, Missouri.

via Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: TWINS: Arpaio and Ferguson’s Chief Thomas Jackson — Why Latinos Should PAY ATTENTION to what’s Happening in Ferguson Missouri.

“Crazy” Compton School Police Will Be Armed With Semi-Automatic AR-15 Rifles: LAist

Students at a Compton school will be facing some changes as the new school year starts next Monday: the campus’ police officers will now be allowed to keep semi-automatic AR-15 rifles in the trunks of their patrol cars while they’re working.

The school board approved a policy in July that allows selected campus police officers to buy these rifles and keep them in their cars in case they need to use them in instances of mass shootings or terrorist attacks, according to KPCC. They plan on training these chosen officers and letting them carry the weapons in their cars within the next month.

Folks in the community are criticizing the policy and questioning why such high-powered weapons are needed on campus—and in the hands of the school police. Francisco Orozco, a recent high school graduate and founder of the Compton Democratic Club—a group that discusses local policies—said that students have complained about the campus police’s excessive force and that there was a lawsuit filed by parents last year in the district about the school police’s racial profiling. (Fox News Latino reported that Hispanics and Latinos make up 65 percent of the Compton community and African-Americans make up 33 percent.)

“The school police has been very notorious in the community and in reality has never had to shoot anyone before,” said Orozco. “So this escalation of weapons we feel is very unnecessary.”

On the Compton Democratic Club’s Facebook page, they’ve been writing about their opposition to the school’s gun policy, including a post titled, “School Wars.” The Compton School Police Officers Association wrote this in response and also noted other schools that were allowing their police officers to carry AR-15s:

Dear, Compton Democratic Club

Compton School Police Officers are not planning to attack the Galaxy of Teachers and Students.

Currently, the following School Districts authorize their Police Officers to deploy these weapons; Los Angeles School PD, Baldwin Park School PD, Santa Ana School PD, Fontana School PD, San Bernandino School PD.

If we encounter an active mass murderer on campus with a rifle or body armor, our officers may not adequately be prepared to stop that suspect. School Police Officers will undergo a training course, followed by a shooting proficiency test on a firing range and a written exam. The rifles are designed for increased accuracy and use rifled ammunition than can pierce body armor. The safety of our Students, Staff, and Parents are very important to us.

Last year, the Fontana Unified School District Police Department purchased 14 AR-15 rifles, with plans of keeping them locked in safes on campus, according to CBS Los Angeles.

via Compton School Police Will Be Armed With Semi-Automatic AR-15 Rifles: LAist.

Resisting Nazis, He Saw Need for Israel. Now He Is Its Critic. – NYTimes.com

THE HAGUE — In 1943, Henk Zanoli took a dangerous train trip, slipping past Nazi guards and checkpoints to smuggle a Jewish boy from Amsterdam to the Dutch village of Eemnes. There, the Zanoli family, already under suspicion for resisting the Nazi occupation, hid the boy in their home for two years. The boy would be the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.

Seventy-one years later, on July 20, an Israeli airstrike flattened a house in the Gaza Strip, killing six of Mr. Zanoli’s relatives by marriage. His grandniece, a Dutch diplomat, is married to a Palestinian economist, Ismail Ziadah, who lost three brothers, a sister-in-law, a nephew and his father’s first wife in the attack.

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

In Fatal Flash, Gaza Psychologist Switches Roles, Turning Into a Trauma VictimAUG. 4, 2014

On Thursday, Mr. Zanoli, 91, whose father died in a Nazi camp, went to the Israeli Embassy in The Hague and returned a medal he received honoring him as one of the Righteous Among the Nations — non-Jews honored by Israel for saving Jews during the Holocaust. In an anguished letter to the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, he described the terrible price his family had paid for opposing Nazi tyranny.

Photo

Hassan al-Zeyada, a Palestinian psychologist in Gaza, whose brother Ismail Ziadah is married to Mr. Zanoli’s grandniece. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

“My sister lost her husband, who was executed in the dunes of The Hague for his involvement in the resistance,” he wrote. “My brother lost his Jewish fiancée who was deported, never to return.”

Mr. Zanoli continued, “Against this background, it is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried out by the State of Israel.”

via Resisting Nazis, He Saw Need for Israel. Now He Is Its Critic. – NYTimes.com.

LA Sparks Celebrated American Indians Appreciation Night with Shoni Schimmel

AMERICAN INDIANS LOVE SHONI AND SHE MAKES IT APPARENT THAT THE FEELING IS MUTUAL.

Some 300 Indian youth and families were able to attend the game with tickets donated by sponsors. In all, over 1,000 American Indians attended the game. Some of the American Indians traveled to Los Angeles from as far away as Reno, Nevada. Various tribal leaders also attended, as well as former Los Angeles Laker A.C. Green.

via LA Sparks Celebrated American Indians Appreciation Night with Shoni Schimmel.

Dutch man returns Israeli WWII honor after family killed in Gaza | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

A 91-year-old Dutch man honoured by Israel for shielding a Jew from the Nazis has handed back his medal after six of his relatives were killed in a Gaza air strike.

Henk Zanoli returned his Righteous Among the Nations award to the Israeli ambassador in The Hague this week after an Israeli F-16 destroyed his great niece’s Gaza home, killing all inside.

“It is with great sorrow that I am herewith returning the medal I received as an honor and a token of appreciation from the State of Israel for the efforts and risks taken by my mother and her family in saving the life of a Jewish boy during the German occupation,” Zanoli said in a letter dated Monday.

According to Zanoli’s letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador, the bomb dropped by the Israeli military on July 20 during its massive Gaza offensive, flattened a four-story building at the Bureij Refugee Camp, killing all inside.

“The great-great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli military,” Zanoli said in the letter, published by liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz and widely circulated in the Dutch media.

via Dutch man returns Israeli WWII honor after family killed in Gaza | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States | USCIS

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. USCIS offers relief measures to nationals of those three countries who are currently in the United States.

Immigration relief measures that may be available if requested include:

Change or extension of nonimmigrant status for an individual currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after the authorized period of admission has expired;

Extension of certain grants of parole made by USCIS;

Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe economic hardship;

Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relatives (currently in the United States) of U.S. citizens;

Expedited adjudication of employment authorization applications, where appropriate; and

Consideration for waiver of fees associated with USCIS benefit applications.

To learn more about how USCIS provides assistance to customers affected by unforeseen circumstances in their home country, visit http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/special-situations.

via Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States | USCIS.