Category Archives: human rights

192 Palestinians killed in the last week. Complete list with names (updated today 12:30pm)

{And how many Israeli’s were killed or injured by rockets fired from Gaza in the last week?}

Palestine News Network is trying to keep an updated list with the names of all the people killed in Gaza since Tuesday, when Israel started Operation Protective Edge.

The names and ages of those killed are based on the information released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The place and circumstances are based on the information published by the local media and our own sources in Gaza.

via 192 Palestinians killed in the last week. Complete list with names (updated today 12:30pm).

rubble and dust | Palestine Rose

Dr. Nasser al-Tatar, shining example

of selflessness and humanity,

worked continuous shifts for six days

in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital;

…when he finally went home,

Dr. Nasser al-Tater,

watched as his home

where he had lived for 30 years—

was being bombed into rubble and dust

in less than one minute,

by an American F-16 ‘Falcon Fighter’ jet,

given to Israel by American tax payers…

via rubble and dust | Palestine Rose.

Read carefully – Israel isn’t bombing Gaza because of Hamas — New Internationalist

Israel’s oppression of Palestinians doesn’t start and finish with large-scale military operations: ‘normality’ for Gazans is ghetto life, for those in the West Bank, ethnic cleansing and colonization. Rockets or no rockets do not change this. The air, sea and land blockade of Gaza – now supported by Egypt – has gone on for seven long years. And when a ceasefire is implemented, and it may be in place by 9am on 15 July, Israel and its supporters will expect a return to the status quo. This is why resistance should not be denounced by those outside liberation movements: resistance in all forms is any oppressed people’s right to shout to the world, ‘we’re still here’ and to demand justice and change.

Until the world realizes that military operations in Gaza are about subduing the population into compliance with Israel’s quest to carry on as it pleases, the occupying state will continue killing and oppressing, unabated for decades to come.

via Israel isn’t bombing Gaza because of Hamas — New Internationalist.

Hobby Lobby: A “Perfect Storm” to Galvanize the Public | National Women’s Law Center

  1. The Use of Religion As an Excuse to Discriminate: Over the past few years, there has been a campaign to use religion as a disguise for discrimination. (It must be noted that many people of religion have spoken out against these attempts.) Perhaps the most famous recent example of this is the Arizona bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse to serve LGBT individuals and others. In Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court allowed employers to impose their religious beliefs on their employees.
  2. Corporate Personhood: There have been many attempts to imbue corporations with an ever-increasing number of legal rights in order to allow the 1 percent to further entrench their power. The best known example of this is the Citizens United case – in which the Supreme Court held that corporations had a First Amendment right to make campaign donations. Thanks to the Hobby Lobby decision, corporations will not only be joining us on the campaign trail but in the pew as well, since the Supreme Court ruled that some corporations have a right to religious liberty under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
  3. Denying Women The Ability to Make Their Own Reproductive Health Decisions: At the heart of the campaign against reproductive rights is the idea that women should not be able to make their own decisions about their health care. The outpouring of support for Wendy Davis’ 2013 filibuster was precisely because women were feeling silenced about their own health and Davis spoke up seemingly on all of our behalf. The Hobby Lobby decision doubles-down on this point – both by allowing bosses to have a say in their women employee’s health care choices and because it is about birth control. Let’s repeat that – they don’t trust women to make decisions about BIRTH CONTROL. In the year 2014.

via Hobby Lobby: A “Perfect Storm” to Galvanize the Public | National Women’s Law Center.

A knock on the roof, then another Gaza home destroyed by Israeli missile | World | The Guardian

{Two things are clear here. I. That Israeli military either has infiltrated a number of “spies” into Gaza to gather information and “tag” buildings slated for attack and destruction whenever Israel decided the time was right, or 2. They paid for a lot of information, which like purchased information in Afghanistan by the CIA, turned out to be bad or based, in part, on people who wanted to get even with personal enemies. What is really clear is that a plan has been in place to destroy a number of targets for months and the claim would be self-protection against Hamas and places where rockets were stored. The claims in many cases are false and based on bad information, or just being made up!}

He says he had just returned to his family on Sunday night after working a week straight at an overwhelmed hospital short of resources. “We’ve had tens of deaths and hundreds of injured. I needed to be at the hospital,” he says. “It was just after the time for breaking the Ramadan fast at 7.50pm.

“The IDF called my nephew with a 10-minute warning saying that they planned to destroy my house. Because it took him several minutes to find me, it was less than 10 minutes. I got my family out quickly and warned my neighbours to take care. Then they hit my house with a rocket and then a second.”

He walks through the destruction, picking up a book left on his consulting desk now covered in dust, and examines the tangled crater at the centre of his gutted home.

“I’m at a loss to explain why they did this,” says Tatar, 59. “I have been a doctor for 30 years. First I was a cardiologist, then head of cardiology, then director general. I have tried to reach out through channels to find out why this happened, but I’ve had no reply.”

via A knock on the roof, then another Gaza home destroyed by Israeli missile | World | The Guardian.

Israel’s far right spreads from the fringes | Middle East | DW.DE | 14.07.2014

According to Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, these are dangerous statements that should be banned.

“There are certain circles that want to deny the fact that Palestinians are people just like us. No more, no less,” she said on Israeli radio. “Unfortunately, many think that we are a holy people, and that non-Jews can be defined as unclean and worthy of death.”

The rabbis base their views on ancient and traditional Jewish texts, said Elior, adding that this doesn’t, however, legitimize racism.

The Jewish people have a long history that stretches back more than 3,000 years, she added. The collective memory is shaped by texts, which resulted, in part, from Jews living as a persecuted minority among other peoples, said Elior.

There are written sources over 3,000 years old, and it’s clear “that over such a long period of time there are all sorts of beliefs that are no longer acceptable today,” she said. “Just as we no longer have slaves or maidservants, although there are religious laws that permit doing so, you cannot allow racist comments based on these Israeli sources.”

via Israel’s far right spreads from the fringes | Middle East | DW.DE | 14.07.2014.

No Love for Veterans – NYTimes.com

When Republican opponents of federal jobless benefits say that aid to the unemployed encourages idleness, that includes veterans.

When they say that the nation can’t afford to pay for federal jobless benefits, that includes veterans. They are also, not incidentally, dissembling, because the Senate-passed extension was paid for with offsets. Besides, even if the money to pay for jobless benefits were borrowed, it would be more than worth it.

There is no doubt that federal unemployment benefits are still needed. Even with recent improvements in job growth, nearly a third of the nation’s 9.5 million unemployed people have been out of work for six months or longer, a level that is far higher than at any time before the Great Recession in records going back to 1948.

In addition, no previous Congress has ever let federal benefits expire when long-term joblessness has been as bad as it is today.

That’s not love and gratitude. It’s disdain and thanklessness.

via No Love for Veterans – NYTimes.com.

Names of the Victims in Gaza – Continuously Updated | Hummus For Thought

Nour al-Najdi 2004-2014

Relatives and friends carry the body of Nour al-Najdi, 10-years-old, during her funeral in Rafah after being killed by an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 11, 2014. (Photo: AFP – Said Khatib – retrieved from Al Akhbar)

They will try their best to dehumanize the civilians slaughtered by the terrorist government of Israel, but the Internet allows us to, at least, know their names. Here are the names of the first 100 Gazans murdered by the Occupying force in the past 4 days. The list will be updated daily. I’m dedicating the blog’s Facebook page to reporting on Gaza. I apologize for the disproportionate attention given to Palestine, but international pressure is the only way to stop Israel’s government from continuing the ongoing massacre (despite Netanyahu pretending otherwise.) I’m still sharing Middle East-related links of course, not just on Palestine.

via Names of the Victims in Gaza – Continuously Updated | Hummus For Thought.